2008 Season Registration

(See Below for Updated Information) 

Hammonds Plains A's Wearables and Accessories are now available On-line!

  Check out our site at

 http://hpba.fundytextile.com/Default.htm

Or click on the image below to visit our store.

Many thanks to Holly, HPBA President, and Kim at Fundy Textiles for their tremendous efforts in putting this site together.

Late Registrations are still being accepted by HPBA. To register, please contact Holly Lapierre, HPBA President, at Holly.Lapierre@aliant.ca or 486-7213/499-3777

Note:  Any players registering late who wish to try out for one of the Hammonds Plains A's Rep teams to play in the Bluenose League at the Mosquito/PeeWee/Bantam levels are to notify Holly ASAP as mandatory evaluation sessions will be scheduled in the near future.

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The Umpire Clinic sponsored by HPBA will be held Saturday, April 19th, from 8:30 - 5:00 at the Baptist Church, across from Hatfield Farms on Hammonds Plains Road. If you haven't yet confirmed attendance, please contact Holly ASAP. Clinic is open to anyone age 12 and up. Cost is $60.00. 

This clinic is mandatory for all new and returning umpires who wish to umpire during the 2008 season. All new umpires will have their clinic fees reimbursed by HPBA once they've umpired a minimum of 5 games.

If you can't attend this clinic, the BNS Umpire Association will be hosting additional clinics as detailed on their website. 

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 OK, we’re now well into our seemingly endless cold and stormy mid-Feb winter season and that can mean only one thing – Time to start thinking Baseball!

 Registration for the 2008 season will be held Wednesday March 5th and Wednesday March 19th at Hammonds Plains Baptist Church – across from Hatfield Farms. Time will be 6:30pm to 8:30pm Volunteers are required to help out – please contact Holly @ 486-7213 or this website (hpbaweb@hotmail.com) to let us know when you’re available to help.

 HPBA Rep coaches from last year have already met to discuss our expectations and hopes for this upcoming season. There are two things that contribute to the final number of teams.

1.     Players who are willing to play and commit to the Bluenose league

2.     Coaches willing to put in the time and effort.

 Our early estimates have us at 1 midget, 1 bantam, 2 peewee and hopefully 2 mosquito, which reflects our tremendous advances in our rep programs. Anyone wishing to coach one of rep teams please contact Holly or the web ASAP. 

 During registration night there will be signup sheets for all players interested in trying out for all age levels.  All are encouraged to talk with your children to see what they wish to do. These tryouts are open to everyone.

 HPBA has become a Provincial Leader in promoting Girls Baseball and we will be looking to build on our girls program in 2008, giving all of our female players the choice to play on an all girls team, or with the boys.  Last year’s all girls rookie team turned out to be a great success. Our plan is to try and have girls’ teams at the T-Ball, Rookie and Mosquito level. HPBA will also partner with other associations to look into all-girl tournaments and clinics. 

 Our Rookies again will be divided into Junior and Senior teams. Holly is pushing HRM to put some money into the Upper Hammonds Plains field on the Pockwock Road. We will use this field 5 nights a week for the Junior program only.  This should give the kids a chance to play one night - one week – and two the next and eliminate the just Thursday nights at Highland. We all know what havoc that cause when it seemed to rain on every Thursday night.

 The NS Youth Selects will be again invited to have a camp for the T-Ball and Rookies.  As well, the mosquito house team players will be pre-evaluated and divided equally by skill level. There needs to be a fair balance between all the teams. 

 There will be an umpire clinic on April 19th – all day at HP Baptist Church.  The cost should be $60 per person.  Actual costs have not been finalized but the date is set. Anyone – age 12 and up – is welcome to attend the clinic.  All new umpires will have their fee returned should they umpire at least 5 games this summer.  All returning umpires must take the course each and every year.  Please contact Holly or HPBAweb if you plan on attending.

 HPBA is looking for sponsors for uniforms. Please let us know if your business is interested or if you know of someone who is interested in partial or full team sponsorship.

 Finally, for those who’ve been waiting, Baseball Nova Scotia has secured a facility for their Spring “All-Star Baseball Camps” and they should be commencing late-Feb/early Mar. For anyone who hasn’t attended previously, these camps run once per week and are 2 hrs duration for the general camps. There are also specialty pitching and batting camps for 1 hr per week. Many HBPA players take part in these camps and have found them to be extremely beneficial in preparing for the upcoming season. Please check the BNS website (www.baseballnovascotia.com) for information and keep checking our website for periodic updates regarding the 2008 baseball season.

The Tri-County Rangers will be hosting Winterball Camps for Mosquito/PeeWee/Bantam players. All Camps will be held at Sackville Heights Junior High School and will cost $50.00 for Five 1.5 hour sessions.  Schedule is as follows:

Mosquito: Friday Nights 6:15 - 7:45 P.M. Jan. 18, 25, Feb 1, 8, 15

PeeWee/Bantam: Friday Nights 8:00 - 9:30 P.M. Jan 18, 25, Feb 1, 8, 15

The Following Information is required to Register:

• Name of Player
• Level of Player
• Parents Names
• Phone Numbers

For more information, please contact Kent Pietracupa @ 861-2413 or fiveps@accesswave.ca

Cheques are to be written out to Tri-County Rangers Bantam AA and can be mailed to Kent Pietracupa, 851 Cobequid Road, Lower Sackville, NS, B4C 4E1

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The Hammonds Plains Senior Rookie A's were recently recognized as the 2007 Nova Scotia House Team of the Year at the Annual Baseball Nova Scotia Awards Dinner, held at the Delta Halifax on October 20th.

 This concludes a remarkable and memorable year for the A's which saw them winning the Chase for the Lobster Cup in Shelburne, Gold at the Hammonds Plains Senior Rookie Year-End Tournament, Silver at the inagural Hammonds Plains Rookie Invitational Tournament, Bronze at the Brandon Russell Mega Tournament in Bridgewater, and Semi-Finalists at the 6th annual LWF Rookie Tournament in Sackville which had 16 teams participating.

 The Team would like to thank its Sponsors - RKO Steel, Irving Equipment, Securitas Canada, and Clearwater for their generous support.

HPBA would like to congratulate the Players and Coaches for their tremendous efforts and thank all Parents for their continuous support thoughout the season.

Congratulations to the Hammonds Plains A's for winning Gold at the Senior Rookie Year-End Tournament. In a Championship re-match between the A's and the Golden Jays, who had played for Gold previously at the HPBA Senior Rookie Invitational, the A's came out on top with a 10 - 5 vicory.

This concludes a remarkable year for the A's. In addition to the above Championship, they also previously won Gold in Shelburne, Silver at the HPBA Invitational, and Bronze in Bridgewater.

Well done to all of our teams and a big Thank You to all of the coaches and parents who made this such a great season for our players.

Congratulations to Coach Brent and the Hammonds Plains PeeWee A’s for winning Silver at the PeeWee AA Provincial Championships, held in Dartmouth from 24 – 26 August.

The team went unbeaten and finished first in their pool during their round-robin play, defeating Tri-County, Halifax and Dartmouth while battling the usual Nova Scotia adversaries - rain, humidity, bug swarms, bird flocks, and trees in the outfield (??).

They then prepared for the cross-over semi-finals where they faced the Sydney Mines Ramblers, the team that had previously won the Atlantic Regional Little League Championship and had recently played in the Canadian National Championship where they held the eventual winners (B.C.) to their closest game. This team had also downed Truro and Kentville in their round-robin, 2 teams that had defeated the A's in previous encounters. However, maintaining the hot bats and strong team play that had carried them through the previous games, the boys came out hard against the Ramblers in the 1^st inning, scoring 5 runs enroute to an eventual 11 – 1 victory.

In the Championship Game, the A’s faced the powerful team from New Glasgow. With strong pitching and defence on both sides, the teams battled through to the 7^th inning with New Glasgow holding a 2 –1 edge. New Glasgow then managed to break out with several runs in the top of the inning, opening a gap that the A’s were unable to close.

Again, well done to our boys, who should be rightfully proud of their tremendous efforts over the weekend. The team would like to extend a thank you to the Dartmouth Mariners for hosting an exciting and well-organized Provincial Championship.

Congratulations to Robert Whynott, Logan Arksey, Alex MacNeil, Michael Roy and Chris Smith of the Hammonds Plains PeeWee A's who have been invited to participate in the 42nd annual David Maltby Memorial International Little League Tournament in Amherst over the Labour Day Weekend. They will be joining several players from the Tri-County region to form the "Sackville Acadians", a team that is put together annually for the sole purpose of participating in this prestigious event.

Little League rules and format are very similar to Mosquito, but with different age criteria, which allows some PeeWee-aged players to participate. The boys have been practicing regularly in Sackville in preparation for this event which will see them face 2 teams from Massachusetts and 1 from New Brunswick during their round robin competition. This should be a very exciting and rewarding experience for our players and HPBA wishes them the best of luck during the tournament.

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Congratulations to the Hammonds Plains Greyhounds, who finished second to the Clark's Harbour Foggies in the 6th Annual Fall River Grandslam Rookie Baseball Tournament, held from 10 - 12 August 2007.

The Team had a fantastic time over the weekend and would like to thank Fall River for again hosting such a great event.

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Congratulations to the Hammonds Plains Golden Jays, coached by Bill Windsor and Dave Doucette, for winning the Gold at the 1st annual HPBA Senior Rookie Tournament, held at Highland Park from 27 - 29 July. The Hammonds Plains A's won Silver after a close, thrilling, 16 -14 final game between the two home teams.

Other teams participating were the Hammonds Plains Hornets, coached by Marcel Laforest, Bridgewater Bulldogs, Sackville BlueJays, Sackville Cardinals, Shelburne Golden Shell Bashers and the Humber Park Hawks. The Bronze Medal game saw the Bridgewater Bulldogs defeating the Humber Park Hawks 20 - 0.

HPBA would like to send a Big Thank You to all the volunteers who worked so hard to make this tournament a success.

Congratulations to Brent and Team for bringing home the gold from the annual Sherwood Invitational PeeWee AA Tournament, held  in Charlottetown from 27 – 29 July.  The boys went 3 – 0 during the round-robin of the 10-team tournament, playing all 3 games on Saturday where temperatures averaged well over 30°C, while the 2nd game was also accompanied by swirling “dust devils” to add to the fun.

The traditional team tournament camp-out was also accompanied by the traditional team tournament rain-out Sunday morning which nearly robbed the boys of a chance to play in the semi finals (AGAIN!) but luckily the weather cleared quickly, enabling the tournament to continue after a few hours delay. The boys downed the host team in their semi-final cross-over game and then had to immediately play for the gold against Tri-County.  The boys prevailed and earned a well-deserved championship title after playing 5 games over 36 hours in very challenging conditions.

The Team would like to thank the Sherwood Knights for their tremendous hospitality while hosting a very well organized, fun and competitive tournament 

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A few reminders of things for the next few weeks

This weekend, Friday night at Uplands and Highland Park, Saturday, all day at Uplands, Highland and Eisenhauer and Sunday at Highland Park, there will no practices on these fields this weekend as we are hosting a Senior Rookie Tournament on these fields, with the exception of Saturday at Highland where there’s a picnic going on that day.

Also on the weekend of Aug 10^th – the 12^th the Bantam A districts will be at Highland Park so no practice time will be available that weekend.

Coaches:  you must return the pitching machines to the shed when you are finished with them. We had a situation Monday where there was only 1 in the shed that is not working properly so not having the other two there left the teams without a pitching machine for their game.

Junior Rookie: obviously last weekend did not work out for make-up. Next Wednesday,  Aug 1^st , our Bantam team does not have a scheduled game so we’ve stolen their field time to make up for Saturday’s missed opportunity. The coaches have been discussing about trying to run a small skills camp that night instead of games so either way we will let you know, but please be prepared to head to the field next Wednesday Aug 1^st.

The year-end tournament will be the weekend of Aug 17^th to the 19^th.  We will need help from parents in running the canteen and BBQ that weekend.  The schedule will have games starting on Thursday and running until Saturday so we can save Sunday as a rain date.

Senior Rookie:  your year-end tournament will be the weekend of the 24^th and 25^th at Highland Park. Again same situation with parents needed to run the canteen.

Mosquito House:  your year-end tournament will be the weekend of Aug 17^th to 19^th at Uplands and Eisenhauer. In the past we have hosted this tournament on the weekend on the 24^th,  however all of our umpires are from the Peewee and Bantam teams and there is a very real possibility that both of these teams will be in provincials and un-available to ump. Since the district championships to decide that decision are not until Aug 11^th and 12^th  we can’t wait that long to see if they will qualify or not. Again parents, there will be a need to have a coordinator for that weekend. Someone has to step forward to organize the tournament. Holly can’t be at both fields at the same time (she’s working on it…) so we would really appreciate some help.

PeeWee House: - Your year end tournament is the weekend of Aug 24^th – 26^th , anticipated at Allen Heights. More details will follow.

Bantam House: Sept 7 to 9^th

All Rep teams: please check the BNS website for your district and provincial schedules.

The year-end banquet for the T-Ball, Rookie and Msq is planned for Sept 8^th at Empire Theatre, subject to availability. It is at this time that all uniforms are to be returned.  As always, more details will be provided as we get closer to the day.

Good Luck to our PeeWee AA Team:  Brent and team will be heading to P.E.I. from the 27^th to 29^th  July to participate in the Sherwood Invitational PeeWee Tournament, a 10-team event which includes local AAA teams so it should be a fun and competitive weekend for all.

HPBA Windbreakers:  HPBA Windbreakers are available for $40.00, which includes name emboidery on the sleeve and a small Number embroidery on the back, below the neck, if desired.  Pictured below are the 2007 Bantam A's wearing the windbreakers.  Any HPBA members interested in purchasing one are to contact their team coach who will collect team orders and forward them on. Please contact this website or Holly for size information.

Well the season is now underway – hopefully we will have limited rainouts as the season continues


Just a few highlights of the season so far:


Enrollment:

We have reached 300 players for the 2007 season – the last of the players were registered last week. In total, we have 6 T-Ball teams, 6 Junior Rookie and 4 Senior Rookie, 3 Mosquito House and one Msq AAA, Two Peewee House, one Peewee AA, One Bantam house and one Bantam A and one Midget AA.  In total – 54 kids more than last season. Baseball is alive and well in Hammonds Plains!

Thank you to all the coaches as you continue to give of your free time for practices and games – it is a huge commitment and it is very much appreciated.

Congratulations to our Mosquito AAA who finished 2^nd this weekend in the Canada Day Tournament that was hosted here in Hammonds Plains. A huge thumbs up to all the parents who worked hard all weekend long in the canteen. Great organization by Neil Gaskell and his team.

Also a big thanks to our young umpires – who we wish some parents would remember are only just kids themselves.  The comments from adults in the stands over the weekend (and of course none were our parents!!) had us shaking our heads.  Without a pool of umpires to choose from there would be no officials at games.  We would ask that all of you please remember that the main reason kids drop out of umpiring is the abuse from the stands. We need them – warts and all!!!

Girls Camp - A reminder to all parents of our girls – this weekend (July 7/8) at Highland Park will be a camp put on by our Nova Scotia Girls Bantam Team. Tim Pratt will be contacting many of you tonight to remind you of this wonderful opportunity for our girls to play and interact with the older players.

Work Party - We will also be having a work party at Highland Park this Saturday, July 7th – we need to move the gravel from the parking lot into the dugouts.  Also need to paint the new shed. Even if you have only an hour to spare – it would be much appreciated. Starting at 9am and going until 2pm.  If anyone out there – you know, has a Kaboda sitting in their yard – well it would be great to have on Saturday and you'll help make Holly's dreams come true...  If not we will have a few lawn tractors and trailers that will be on the move.

Recycle - A reminder that our recycle program will continue all summer long. Please continue to bring them to Highland Park and leave between the sheds. – Coaches – please if you see the blue bags outside – can you place them inside for me.

Senior Rookie Tournament – We are hosting a Senior Rookie Tournament on the 28^th and 29^th of July.  Please see the website for the schedule that will be posted in the next few days. Many thanks to Chris Vandenberg for taking this huge task on.  We would encourage all of the Junior Rookie parents to try and bring the kids out to watch a game or two.

Pictures – All of the T-Ball and Senior Rookie pictures are in the hands of the coaches – Junior Rookie’s pictures should be available this week.

Uniforms – Due to the huge amount of late additions to the teams, we have had to improvise with some of the uniforms.  Some of the players have received Hammonds Plains T-Shirts – those are yours to keep after the season. We know that some would prefer to have their child in a jersey– but full sets of shirts would run three hundred dollars or so, plus a longer wait time with delivery etc.

Photos – Holly is trying to collect photos that you will be taking during the summer – if you have any, please send them along to her @ 'Holly.Lapierre@aliant.ca' . Please provide some information about the pictures - Ie age group etc.

Finally, our PeeWee AA team will be heading to Pictou this weekend to participate in the annual Dave Kelley Memorial Tournament - good luck to Brent and Team and good luck with the team camp-out (forecast - rain, rain, rain...)

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Team Nova Scotia Bantam Girls, as part of their fundraising efforts and to help develop girls baseball in Nova Scotia, will be holding a skills development camp for girls of  T-Ball, Rookie, Mosquito and Pee Wee age.

This camp will cover hitting, throwing, fielding and pitching with drills appropriate for the age of the girls involved. The cost of the Camp will be $25.00 for 4 hours of instruction. We will be holding the Camp on Sat. July 7th and Sunday July 8th from 10 am to Noon at Highland Park in Hammonds Plains.

We will be capping registration at 50 girls.

The players and Coaches of Team Nova Scotia will be running the skill sessions, allowing us to give individualized instruction to all of the girls attending.
 
To register, or for more information, contact Tim Pratt at 835-5277

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