"Once a National, Always a National" By Jeff Scott

For the 2013 baseball season, North London Baseball Association will field a record 37 teams with a total registration of just under 500 players. These players range in age from 4 through to 21. North London will field teams’ in house league and competitive play from JR T ball to JR Men.

North London Baseball has worked diligently over the past several seasons on player retention and coach development. Each of these is critical to continued growth and success. Through our partnerships with our Sponsors we are able to reach into the greater community to promote the game of baseball.

North London Baseball is proud to have partnered with the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in St Marys to educate and promote the long and vital history that Canadians have played in this great game. North London Nationals have a history of Baseball Ontario Champions, league champions, tournament champions and our members play key roles in our community. We continue to work with our high school aged players as they assist us in our programming to earn community hours towards graduation. We have started the process with the London Majors to create a mentoring program that will benefit our entire association in years to come.

London is fortunate to have Centrefield Sports, Canada’s largest indoor training facility, and we work with President Adam Stern on the promotion of the game. Each year we celebrate our season of success with our annual banquet. 2013 marks out 5th consecutive event and is already shaping up to be one of our best shows ever. Guest speakers have included Tom Valcke, CEO iCASE Baseball Academy, Joe O’Neill, President LDBA, Jeff Flesher, OBA Clinician and Andrew Henry, a NLBA graduate who is now at UWO. The banquet features special presentations, awards, luncheon and an audio visual presentation that would rival the big leagues. Once a National, always a National, our program has graduated players to the AAA London Badgers and some of those players continue to be active in MLB today.

In the end, it’s all about the "love of the game", creating happy athletes that will play the great game of baseball for years to come. North London Baseball is extremely proud to have been name Kobe Sportswear Association of the summer and wish everyone the greatest success this season. If you build it, he will come, has never rang more true than at North London Baseball Association. www.northlondonbaseball.com


Yours in Baseball,

Jeff Scott
President NLBA
jeffs@northlondonbaseball.com  

The Ontario Deaf Hockey Association is Making Some Noise!

The Ontario Deaf Hockey Association is for players that are hard of hearing, deaf or wear cochlear implants who want to be a part of a team that showcases their disability and to show that game can be played and enjoyed the same with or without a disability.

The program initially started off with 12 players and today has a growing capacity of 95 players in Ontario that are deaf or hard of hearing. These players are playing through mainstream sports and when the opportunity arises to compete with the Ontario Deaf Hockey Team, will be selected for a tryout for the Canada Deaf Games which are held every two years.

The games are joined by athletes who have a hearing decibel loss of 55 or greater which is the qualifications to play, and the age limit is 16+. They are not allowed to wear their listening devices while on the ice. So the players communicate through sign language, lip reading and also rely on sight and strobe lights which are placed around the arena.

When players compete for the games, it also doubles as a tryout for the Canadian National Deaf Hockey Team which competed in Vantaa, Finland for the 2nd World Deaf Hockey Championships. The five countries that competed in the Championships this year were Finland, Sweden, Russia, Canada and the USA.

There were 14 players from the Ontario Team that have made it to the Canadian team and Kobe Sportswear would like to congratulate them for being apart of bringing home SILVER!!!

Pictured above are a few of the players from Team Ontario that made it to Team Canada.

 

www.deafhockey.com

www.kobesportswear.com