Mount Seymour Little League held their annual Opening Ceremonies on Saturday 8th April. As with so many other days this Spring, the weather refused to cooperate. With rain all morning, many of the scheduled games had to be cancelled – although we have to admire the bravery of a few teams from Rally Caps to AA who some how found a way to play their games that morning.
We gathered in Myrtle Park at 11.30 and then paraded into the field behind our fabulous bagpiper Rebecca. The teams assembled on the Majors field, which with the rain-soaked tarps looked more suitable for slip n slide than baseball! President Jasmine gave a lovely speech, followed by the Little League pledge and our National Anthem. We then invited Team Canada player and MSLL skills coach Tyson Gillies out to throw the first pitch. Immediately following the MSLL Ceremonies, North Shore Adults Challenger Baseball held their first welcome circle as they got ready for their inaugural season.
While we would have loved to have had sunshine like last year, it was inspiring to see so many families out in the park in the pouring rain proud to show their MSLL spirit. Our league is strong, and growing every year and we are glad that so many players and parents came out to celebrate the start of a new season. Unfortunately the rain on the tarps meant the audio was hard to hear (despite hours of hard work by Tyler of Deep Cove Music the previous day to set it up). For those who couldn’t hear Jasmine’s opening speech you can read it here.
Hello and welcome to the opening ceremony for the 2017 season of Mount Seymour Little League.
The weather might not be exactly what we had hoped for – so I will try and keep this brief! Thank you all for coming out and braving some cool and damp Deep Cove weather – because weather be damned – it is April and it is baseball season! Thank you to our bagpiper Rebecca for leading our procession and getting the ceremony started with such style.
I would like to first welcome some very special guests to Myrtle Park
- The Mayor of the District of North Vancouver – Richard Walton,
- LL District 5 Administrator – Wayne Hobson,
- Canadian baseball player and 4 time Team Canada member – Tyson Gillies.
I would also like to welcome Ian McLean – Coordinator for the North Shore Adults Challenger baseball. Mount Seymour is incredibly proud to introduce the Adult Challenger division as part of our League – and are so very pleased to have you all join our community. These games will be part of our regular Saturday baseball schedule down here at Myrtle Park and we look forward to watching you play and being a part of your baseball experience.
My name is Jasmine Barry and this is my 2 nd year as the President of Mount Seymour Little League. I served as Player Agent two years ago, and I have two out of my three children playing this year – a son in AAA and one in the Majors division. Our daughter retired after her rookie season of Rally Caps and will now serve as head cheerleader and mystery bag consumer on the sidelines this season. When our first son started down at this field at age five and played Rally Caps, I would not have envisioned that I would be standing here talking to you all today. My knowledge of baseball was limited and quite frankly, I just signed him up to get outside and get some fresh air. I was nervous to sign up for concession, had never heard of Teamsnap, and barely made it to games and photo day toting a four year old and newborn each time. Little did I know that through this League I would find the very best of my community.
We have something so very special down here at Myrtle Park and I can promise you first hand that the more time and effort I have put in, I get a thousand times more back in the way of friendships and pride in our accomplishments. It is an amazing thing to stand her in front of you and see all these excited faces in their new uniforms – growing a love of baseball – and their teammates and coaches. I am so proud that our League has steadily grown over the past years – and we are now over six hundred members strong!
Although your baseball season is just getting started, for our Executive members it is actually a culmination of months of hard work that has been put in year round. We meet once a month (and often more) to discuss and plan for the upcoming season. All of what we have here today is the collective effort of passion, enthusiasm, and dedication from these twelve special people. We take our jobs seriously and we spend countless hours (and some sleepless nights) trying to do our very best to make your child’s Little League experience the very best it can be. I am so lucky to be a part of this group.
2017 Executive:
- Vice President : Daryl Townsend
- Player Agent: Yvonne Leonard
- Umpire in Chief: Todd Dea
- Registrar: Connie Cunningham
- Fields Manager Darren Embley
- Equipment Mgr: Pierre Pluff
- Safety Office: Bruce Davis
- Treasurer: Jennifer Dickson
- Secretary: Cathy Brydon
- Coaching Director: Steve Armistead
- Past President: Tom Murphy
I would also like to take this opportunity to say thank you to :
- Concession Manage Kim Tattrie.
- Division Coordinators: Yvonne Leonard (Rally Caps), Kara Gueddes (RJ), Jennifer Dickson (RS), Fiona Rouillard (AA), Natalia Skapski (AAA), Michelle Michaely (Majors), Connie Cunningham (Juniors).
- Our Sponsors: Self Storage Depot, Burhan Lawn Care, Inside Performance, and Darwin Construction
Before I call up our Players to take the Little League pledge I would like to thank all of you – parents, coaches, managers, and other volunteers. All of the effort and time you give is so important – from cleaning up on fields day, scrubbing out concession, building mystery bags, power washing dugouts, working your concession shifts…. Without you our League could not run. And we are stronger as a whole and a community with your participation.
I said this last year, and I will say it again – Kids – give your parents a huge round of applause in advance for getting your uniforms cleaned after each game, getting you to the field on time, packing snacks, coaching teams, prepping fields, keeping score and pitch counts, buying mystery bags and hot dogs, and most importantly , cheering you on and encouraging you at every game and practice to do your very best and have fun. Thank you to all of you for being a part of our Mount Seymour Little League family!
- Little League Pledge – Majors players
- Little League Pledge – Coaches
- National anthem – Sarah Jamison
- Ceremonial Pitch – Tyson Gillies
**** I now declare the 2017 MSLL season open – Let’s play ball!!! *********