Softball Australia - Australian Sports Commission

QUEENSLAND
Softball Queensland has had a busy and productive year.
Following on from the successful development of The
Softball Centre - Redlands last year, we celebrated the
opening of the upgrade to The Softball Centre - Brisbane.
The Downey Park upgrade, an investment of $670K into
lighting and player facilities, was officially opened by Mr.
Chris Bombolas MP on Wednesday 7 November 2007 on
behalf of the Minister for Police, Corrective Services and
Sport, the Honourable Judy Spence MP.
From ongoing viability of the sport, we report two
noticeable outcomes. Firstly, Softball Queensland was
successful in achieving three year funding from the
Queensland Government for the 2008 - 2010 period
for Organisational Development and Priority Initiatives
(PI). The PI funding program has allowed Softball
Queensland to implement our Growth and Participation
Project introducing modified softball, OzPitch and Simple
Softball, to areas where softball currently isn’t being
played. Secondly, our registration numbers in traditional
club softball have shown an increase over the current
year. This is the first real increase we have experienced
for a number of years and hopefully reflects a return
of the investment of the good work that was made in a
number of initiatives including, Simple Softball, the Junior
Games Pathway and Growth & Participation Project.
On the representative front, congratulations are extended
to the Queensland Heat team which won back to back
National League titles. The Queensland Heat is the
new name for the combined QAS Heatwave and SQ
Sunlanders teams. Congratulations are also extended to
the players and officials from Queensland who either won
individual national awards or were selected in national
teams and squads or appointed to international events.
These are listed elsewhere in the report. Other awards
received included:
� Queensland Sportswoman of the Year - Brooke
Spence was awarded the Clem Jones Group
Emerging Athlete Award at the Womensport
Queensland Dinner
Queensland Sports Awards - The 2007 Qld Under
�
�
�
16 Girls Team won the Department of Education,
Training and the Arts 2007 Queensland Junior
Sport Team of the Year.
Logan City Sport Awards - the 2006 Softball
Queensland Masters Tournament won the Logan
City Sport Awards Event of the Year
Audrey McLaughlin AM was awarded the
Queensland Government – Sport and Recreation
Volunteer Medal.
We welcomed Canterbury Clothing Company as our
official uniform and apparel supplier and thank all our
sponsors and preferred suppliers. The Queensland
Government Department of Sport and Recreation and
the following sponsor groups continue to contribute to the
success of softball in Queensland: Queensland Academy
of Sport, Canterbury Clothing Company, Easton, Dormer
Sport, Quest Apartments, Four’N Twenty, Yellow Cabs,
Constellation Hotel Group, OAMPS and Ozwings.
Print media coverage has again been very high with
over $100k coverage gained. Softball was featured on
Network 10’s “Sport On” segment for their Totally Wild
children’s show and the Olympic Softball Team Farewell
was covered by all four TV stations in addition to the
print media. Channel 10 presented their weather report
with two live crosses during the event and ABC featured
a segment on Tanya Harding during their Stateline
program.
QUEENSLAND
Events are a major part of our business. In addition to the
State Championships, national events, season launch,
annual dinner and the Olympic Farewell, SQ held the
inaugural Southern Cross Challenge in Redlands in
April 2008. The Challenge was developed to provide
international competition and links with other international
teams. The SQ Masters Tournament started with 8 teams
in 2000 and continues to grow with 62 teams participating
in 2007. Special mention of the Mackay Softball
Association who hosted the 2008 Under 14 Boy’s State
Championship eight weeks after the city and specifically
the softball park, was inundated. Flood water level
Softball Australia 59