| build a web site| fundraising| community| collect fees online| blogz |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
A little history of the league by Jerry Chapin
Jerry Chapin has been involed with Colonia Girls Softball since 1982 and is responsible for keeping the league alive during some very tough times! He still umpires and we continue to seek his advice in running the league. (Mick Tango) My Thoughts on the Colonia Girls Softball League, by Jerry Chapin February 27, 2001 When I was asked me to put down my thoughts on the Colonia Girls Softball League, I just didn't know where to begin. The most important thing is to think of the girls who enjoyed playing in the league. I feel that I'm a pretty good organizer. I like to think that by making sure that there were qualified managers and coaches, distribution of the talent on each team, nice uniforms, a timely schedule, sensible rules and decent umpires, that nothing could upset the league, the game or the girls. I believe that if all of those things plus others come together the experience for girls playing in the Colonia Girls Softball League would be enjoyable. The League is over 30 years old. The founders deserve a lot of credit for seeing the need for girls sports participation long ago. Before Mia Hamm and Brandi Chastain made soccer headlines, before Lisa Fernandez and Michelle Smith won gold medals and got their names on bats, the Colonia Girls Softball League was providing a place for girls to show and develop their softball skills. I don't know how all of the pieces came together but one of the best things Colonia Girls Softball League had going for it was plenty of fields. The Board of Education has always been very generous by allowing the Girls to play on Fields 1, 2 and 3 when not in use by the high school teams. I understand that the Girls Softball League traded School 27 Field (Pennsylvania Ave.) for School 21 Field (Oak Ridge Heights) with the boys long ago. This gave us a second big field to hold Senior games. The use of School 20 Field (Claremont Ave.) has always been a blessing and now with the addition of Field Six the League can play so many games each night it usually comes down to, "Can we get enough umpires?" Another aspect of the league I learned from hearsay is that when the league was formed men weren't allowed to be managers. At a meeting years later one of the women who was around at the time things changed said it was a good decision to allow men to become managers. As a matter a fact she said it in such a way as to infer that the league wouldn't be what is was today if not for the involvement of the men. The league has always had some very dedicated people looking over it. Many of them lasted for five or ten years. However I can only think of one person who has given so much time to this league for so many years with little personal recognition. That person is Phil Kohn. Phil was instrumental in writing (or possibly rewriting) the Constitution of the League, managed teams for nine years and has been the Head Umpire for the last twelve years. His fairness and patient explanation of the rules are legendary. And no slight contribution is made by Kathy Kohn, Phil's wife, who is the assigner for the umpires not only for all of Colonia Girls Softball regular schedule but also the All-Star games at the end of the season. Kathy has been doing this for ten years. If there were more people like Phil and Kathy Kohn, the League and the world would be a better place. Other dedicated people that I came across were Pierre Abry, Tom Leary, Ray Hughes, Lorraine Luban, Maureen Welsh, Steve Novalany, Wayne Kelley, Niel Riegrod, Sergio Germinario, The Britton's, The Reach's, The Uchrin's, The Egan's, Glenn Albaum, Joe Kroner, Bob Higgins, John Galvin, John Eberhardt, Jack Lawless, John Finn and Mick Tango. These people along with others continue to give more than they take, although in doing so I'll bet they get a lot of satisfaction in knowing they've done a lot of good for the girls and the community. When I joined the League I didn't think much of the leadership. The first candy drive I participated in revealed that the winner of the grand prize was the daughter of the couple running the candy drive. I would attend the meetings and see clashes between groups. The split between factions was so great that you had to declare allegiance to one party or the other to get anything you wanted. Lots of animosity. Everyone had long memories and everyone owed someone else a payback. There was very little league growth under their regimes. They continued to hold out hope for the old Senior division. That division was originally made up of 7th and 8th graders playing in the same division as the high school girls. The drop out rate for 6th graders going up to play with the Seniors was 50%. This was acceptable to this group of "enlightened" leaders since in doing so it weeded out the lesser players in favor of the stronger ones. The trouble was that the average middle school child had nothing in common with the high school varsity player that drove to the game in her own car and talked about last night's date. After Lorraine Luban and I were elected as league officers we sponsored measures to create two new divisions. The creation of Intermediate Division was voted in over the objections of the old regime. It was an immediate success with five teams the first year and seven teams the following year. I claim responsibility for using the names of the gems for these young ladies' team names, and I'm glad to see they are still in use today. Four teams in the old Senior division languished under the unsteady leadership of the old regime. Forfeits and no-shows became normal. When the old leaders walked away the void was filled with Intermediate managers who gave it a go for a number of years with three teams by playing against other towns. High schoolers didn't want to play varsity or junior varsity games and recreation ball at the same time. They gave up the Colonia Girls Softball League. We had no Senior League for a few years but now the Intermediate Division has become the new Senior Division. The second division that was approved was less controversial and in hindsight was the best thing ever done for this league. A few of the managers suggested to split off the two youngest ages from the Juniors and make a Gidgets Division. The board approved it. Gidget was a name of the division our 10 year old All-Stars were assigned in the Sayerville Tournament. I liked the name and adopted it. I assigned the original team names Moonbeams, Rainbows, Sunshines and Twilights. Again, I'm glad they stuck. I think that the special rules, special ball and managers pitching the first few innings of each game has made this softball game as good as can be found for nine and ten year old girls. I think this is reflected in the success the girls have had in post-season play. When I was elected First Vice President of the League, I was told to just get a lot of people on my committee. At the time the office was responsible for the rules, the player ratings, the draft, the schedule, the uniforms, the equipment and the fields. The committee was known as the Operations Committee and as everyone knows, if you want to make sure something doesn't get done, send it to committee. I had kept every memo from the league from the day I first participated but really had no formal league records. I met the outgoing Vice President in a store at the mall that winter and asked him if he had any records to turn over to me. He told me in a loud voice, "You got it all." That was all the help I was going to get from any past officer of this league. I took inventory of the equipment. A year earlier I asked that a 30 inch bat be given to each team. The league did in fact buy two and then didn't distribute them. The bats were brand new sitting in the storage area. I made sure that didn't happen again. The Operation Committee that I recruited did function very well. I had a few good folks help with counting the equipment. I figured out how many teams we would expect and how far the equipment would go. The League had a working relationship with a local sporting goods store and I called on them to re-establish this relationship. I found the owner to be totally disorganized and offering to beat any deal as long as I came back with "their" price. Well, it didn't take me too long to find a good source for equipment and uniforms at Leisure Sports in Iselin. Glenn Newton worked with me and never disappointed me on delivery of promised goods. Nevertheless, I was required to get a minimum of three quotes from reputable suppliers. This was all quite time consuming. The Operations Committee helped review the league rules and write the rules for the two new divisions. Others helped with the ratings and the "clinic" day for incoming players and those moving up. This had not been done the year before, so that none of the children had any ratings. Again the phrase, "You got it all," came back to me. But, slowly things were falling into place. The league enrollment was up. The Gidget division was taking shape. The draft was accomplished with innovative fair balancing methods. All that was left was the schedule. No one could help me with the schedule. I had to do it myself. If I didn't have the previous year's schedule neatly done by Phil Kohn, I probably wouldn't have gotten it done on time. I barely made it through that first year because on top of everything I've told you, I was attending graduate school at Seton Hall University as well as managing one of the new Intermediate teams. Every year after that became easier, but I finally convinced the league that this job should be split in half. The First Vice President now handles rules, players, ratings and schedules, while the Third Vice President handles uniforms and equipment. I owe a great deal of thanks to a bunch of people who helped me bring this league into the shape it is today. The previous administration had wanted me to fail, but I didn't. I just couldn't let the girls down. Jerry Chapin |
|
||||||||||
|
|
Colonia Girls Softball League View Our Guestbook | Sign Our Guestbook 29 visitors have signed our guestbook. |
|
||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||
|
|||||||||||
