Alumni support for national teams
Kingsley Collins
20 August 2018
Over the past four and a half years, the Australian Baseball Alumni organisation has been pleased to provide modest material support to teams representing our country at international tournaments.
That support is consistent with Alumni goals and has been made possible through the generosity of our sponsors and our members – whose annual subscriptions are directed towards worthwhile baseball projects at the discretion of our Committee of Management.
While Alumni membership has not quite been taken up at the rate that we hoped for or would have liked, we are proud of the contribution that our members and supporters have been able to make.
Alumni funding has recently been allocated to both the Under 15 World Cup squad and to the Women’s World Cup squad.
For the Under 15 World Cup team, the Alumni made a donation that covered the supply of a pair of New Balance cleats for each player, along with G-Form batting gloves for each player.
For the Women’s World Cup team – the Emeralds – Australian Baseball Alumni has supplied batting gloves for all players, along with some material support towards pre-tournament training before their series starts on 22 August.
Team Australia Team Manager Glenn Williams is a founding Alumni member who has been passionate about the project and its potential from the start to help promote the sport and provide assistance to targeted programmes where possible.
"I had the pleasure of handing out the cleats and batting gloves to the players in Atlanta,” Glenn Williams said.
“To say they were excited is an understatement. It's a really good group of young men who were really appreciative of the gesture and support shown by the Alumni."
"It may not seem much in monetary terms, but it was something the players thought was great and it added to the experience of them representing their country," he said. "It's always special to play for Australia, but to know that there are generous people who have donated to the Alumni and helped make this even more special is a great feeling.”
Drawn from the World Baseball Softball Confederation website, the photos below depict some of our Under 15 World Cup players in action wearing apparel supplied by Australian Baseball Alumni.
James Nati and Solomon Maguire (both Alumni members at some point) are shown wearing the New Balance shoes. Jake Burns is wearing the batting gloves and Quinn Johnson is wearing both.
LINKS:
AUSSIES WRAP UP UNDER 15 CAMPAIGN WITH BACK-TO-BACK WINS
EMERALDS POISED TO SHINE AT WOMEN’S WORLD CUP
