Alumni group announces its player mentoring scheme
Kingsley Collins
16 April 2015
Australian Baseball Alumni membership and our online visitors will be aware of our fundamental, underlying commitment to assist emerging young players at all levels of Australian baseball.
One of our goals has been to establish a mentor-type programme for the young men currently in the professional baseball system and for those who may have been recently released.
We are delighted to announce that the mentor programme is about to become a reality.
A distinguished group of Australians with Major League experience is already on board to assist in helping deal with the challenges facing young men living away from home and seeking to make a fist of it in the tough arena of professional baseball.
Excited that the scheme is close to being operational, Alumni Chairman Brett Ward has been in contact with our initial group of mentors and he has emailed the young men either currently in the professional system or who have recently been released.
“We are very lucky that a number of our former Major Leaguers have offered to help guide players through any problems or situations that may arise during their careers,” Ward said.
“Players may already be in contact with someone who is qualified to give great advice, but not everyone has access to the best people. The guys who are Alumni mentors have been through everything that current and released players have experienced, or will experience,” he said.
“They may be able to offer some advice to increase a player’s chances of getting through difficult times and they will be available just to talk about any problems that they may have.”
“We all want Australian baseball players to succeed and the Alumni group believes this is one way to help young professionals to reach their full potential,” he said.
“For players who have been released there is still the opportunity to contact our mentors and discuss what options are available or what they may need to do either to get back into the system or to identify other playing opportunities and potential baseball-related employment.”
While Australian Baseball Alumni has achieved quite a bit in its first nine months of operation, there is so much more that can be done to help support our players and to promote Australian baseball.
“We need to get as many Alumni members as possible on board,” Brett Ward said. “You can sign on for a very modest annual fee in the knowledge that all monies raised will go directly back into the sport, to help provide services to our members and to our emerging players."
“We have already helped fund trips for Australian teams because we know how taxing the cost can be on families. More members means we can do more for future teams and players.”
We thank those people who are already Alumni members for their support and we encourage all those who share our interest in the development of Australian baseball to sign on, recommend us to other people, befriend us on Facebook and in any other reasonable way help us to expand the services and the support that we seek to offer.
LINK: Become an Alumni Member