Mount Seymour Little League Opening Day was held on April 9th at Myrtle Park. The day could not have been more beautiful with bright blue skies and warm spring sunshine. The park was a happy, lively place to be with all 4 diamonds and the Rally Caps field busy with games from 9am through until around 6pm.
The Opening Ceremony was well attended – many thanks to all teams who came out. The teams paraded from the park area on to the Majors diamond led by the wonderful bagpiper Rebecca. The sea of multi-coloured uniforms and players of all ages made for a truly impressive parade. Once the teams were all assembled on the field, President Jasmine gave her welcome speech to all players and parents – including many important thanks to the volunteers who work so hard to run the league each year. Players from Majors recited the Little League Pledge and coaches from the AAA division read the Coach/Volunteer pledge. Our National Anthem was beautifully sung by Phoenix – a student from Deep Cove Music. To close out the ceremony Jasmine called on 2014/2015 President Lenny to throw the first ceremonial pitch.
Photo Gallery
President’s Speech
Hello and welcome to the opening ceremonies for the 2016 season of Mount Seymour Little League. What a beautiful day to kick things off here in our community down at Myrtle Park. As I watched our kids march in today with such pride – the smiles on their faces – and the anticipation of playing some great ball with their friends – I am so proud of us all and what we have accomplished so far!
My name is Jasmine Barry and I find myself with the title of President for the League this year. I was your Player Agent last year and have 3 children playing ball this season – Rally Caps, AA, and Majors divisions.
It is an honour to be a part of this organization and although I get the fancy title it is truly a collective effort of an amazing group of people that I get to work with and learn from that makes Mount Seymour what it is. The members of your Executive work tirelessly – not just during baseball season – but year round – to make the very best of our Little League experience. The time and effort and thought that these individuals put into the League is amazing and I cannot thank them enough for their efforts.
On that note, I would like to introduce your to our Executive:
Vice President – DARYL TOWNSEND
Daryl is our Vice President and oversees and manages our Junior, Senior, Bigs divisons. He also coaches one of our Juniors teams.
Player Agent – YVONNE LEONARD
Yvonne puts hours and hours of her time, energy, and thought into our organization – She has so much knowledge of MSLL and without a doubt, I could not do this job without her guidance!. Yvonne organizes our assessments and drafts. Her job is to take care of the players in our League and make sure they are happy. The entire game schedule is her work of art, and on top of that is our fantastic Rally Cap Coordinator.
Umpire in Chief – TODD DEA
Another very familiar face around our fields – He is in charge of all training and scheduling and monitoring of our umpires. He is the man who knows our rules inside and out and took the lead with our Coaches meetings this year.
Registrar – CONNIE CUNNINGHAM
For many Connie is the first contact with MSLL and spends hours sorting out our divisions. She knows your names and divisions and teams better then anyone and put countless hours into her job as Registrar – always with a smile and good humour. She helps collect CRC’s, registration paperwork, assists members with group emails to the membership from various departments, as well as answering the many questions that come in regarding our organization.
Fields Manager – DARREN EMBLEY
Darren is new to this position and is doing an amazing job so far – He is responsible for the shiny new bins that were recently installed – all with shelving and platforms that he built. The Fields day that he organized was a huge success this year. Darren is our liason with the District of North Vancouver and is in charge of all things related to maintaining our ball park including locks, storage bins, field prep equipment, banners, score booth etc. Lately you will see him with a wheelbarrow in hand moving dirt from field to field!
Equipment Manager – WARREN WIGHTMAN
When he is not traveling the world, Warren is ordering gear, inventorying it all, packing gear bags, sorting baseball pants and uniforms, ordering hats etc. If you are wearing a uniform on today, if you are wearing new baseball pants that fit, if you picked up and ran a practice with a fully equipped gear bag, you have him to thank! On top of this, Warren helps to organize and run our AA Coaching Sessions at Blueridge on Friday nights as well as coaching his own team in the Bigs division.
Safety Officer – BRUCE DAVIS
Bruce is the man behind our bright and luminous fluorescent t-shirts this year as well as the coaches’ sharp new shirts. He makes sure that every volunteer on our fields have completed their CRC’s. He helps set up the First Aid course each year, completes first aid kits around the park. Bruce also runs our Batting Cage training each season.
Treasurer – JENNIFER DICKSON
Jennifer is doing an amazing job of organizing our books, streamline banking and issue cheques, maintaining our insurance/permits, helping to track keys, work with our concession staff each night. If you ask Jennifer to get on a task, it is usually done a few hours later!
Secretary – CATHY BRYDON
Cathy is also new to the Executive this year. She keeps our meetings organized and documented, does all of our room bookings, and helped organize the First Aid Course this yea. She is always full of thoughtful new ideas and suggestions to help move our organization forward in a positive way.
Coaching Director – STEVE ARMISTEAD
This is a new position we created this year. Steve’s goal is to develop programs for our coaches’ training. He has so many great ideas for programs he would like to develop and a vision for how to do this. We are lucky to have his knowledge and skill join our team.
Past President – TOM MURPHY
Tom continues to work hard for MSLL as our Past President – giving us good guidance and support throughout the year.
I would also like to thank Kim Tattrie and Dawn Underwood and the other ladies who have generously agreed to help run our concession this year. It is a major time commitment and undertaking to keep our concession up and running and we truly appreciate them taking on this tremendous job with enthusiasm.
Thank you to our division coordinators – Jennifer Dickson (Rookie Junior), Fiona Rouillard (Rookie Senior), Kara Gueddes (AA), Luanne Svetelji (AAA), and Michelle Michaely (Majors) .
Thank you to our Sponsors whose banners we proudly hang on our Majors fence each game –
*MacDonald Realty (Cal Pye/Michelle Rogers)
*Self Storage Depot
*Burhan Lawn Service
*Inside Performance
*Tru Steel Metal Fabricators
* Village Table/Deep Water
We very much appreciate your support!
Before we call the kids up to take the Little League Pledge, I would like to thank all of YOU – parents, coaches, managers, volunteers – without whom our League could not run. Kids – your parents deserve a huge round of applause for getting you to the field, cleaning your uniforms, packing snacks, coaching your teams, managing your teams, pitch counting, prepping fields, keeping scores, buying your rounds of mystery bags and freezies, BUT most of all – cheering you on and encouraging you every day to do your very best out here.
Thank you for participating in Mount Seymour Little League with such enthusiasm.