The Dominica Softball Cricket Development Association will be hosting a softball cricket tournament on Sunday, April 2rd 2017, in Soufriere and all hands are on deck to ensure that the event receives as much participation as possible.
President of the association, Heston Charles, informed Dominica News Online (DNO) on Thursday, April 20th that creating and promoting various softball activities has prompted interested persons to get involved in the sport, and this, in turn, assists in realizing the goal of having some sixteen softball teams competing in Dominica in the upcoming tournament.
“We are going to have two zones hopefully (eight from the North and eight from the South.) We are trying to encourage the teams from the North; hopefully, we should have a team from Bense, Woodford Hill…That is why we brought the festival up there, with the intent to get teams like Bense, Calibishie, to take part in the competition. So hopefully we are aiming for sixteen teams in this national tournament,” Charles said.
In this tournament, which is being held for the fourth time, Charles stated that it is the only tournament which awards a trophy together with a grand prize, and that in itself gives a lot of incentive to prospective teams.
“So you get a trophy plus a grand prize. That has proven to be a great incentive. Also, our tournament is the only tournament that is televised. Our finals over the last three years have been televised on Marpin and that has certainly created a high level of enthusiasm from the participants in this tournament,” Charles said.
In addition to this, Charles said that the softball association is one that provides a “very effective” training program that recruits young persons, ages 7-10, ensuring that the teams are energetic and enthusiastic.
“From primary school, we engage them in an academy, in a training session where they learnt to bowl, to hold a bat, and so they are introduced to softball at a very early age and what we do is we encourage every single club to recruit an under sixteen players, and hopefully we are spreading it out to the women, to get the women involved,” he said.
The association, according to Charles, is persistent in pursuing the big goal of playing softball on a regional and international level.
“The aim has always been to have what we call a Windward Island tournament and hopefully a regional tournament that is the aim where you have softball countries. It is a big thing in Trinidad, big thing in St. Kitts; it’s big in Antigua, big in St. Lucia. The ultimate goal is to have a National Dominica team. We have had it in the past but we have not engaged with the National teams from the other countries but the only the clubs,” he stated.
Charles said that the association seeks to engage with national components of other countries with Dominica having its own national team.
He wishes to let the public know that softball is “like any other sport” that keeps young people engaged and that it creates the platform for exposure to cricket.
The event begins at 10:30 am at the Soufriere Playing Field and is sponsored by Big Edge Financial Express.
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