You may have heard through the BSUK grapevine orelsewhere that the GB Women's Fastpitch Team came second in EuropeanChampionships this past summer -- our best-ever result -- and thereby qualifiedto play in the ISF Women's World Championships next year in Oklahoma City. So we're putting together a programme for next summerthat will involve a 10-day training camp starting in late June, participationin the Canada Cup in Vancouver in early July and then on to the WorldChampionships in mid-July. We are currently facing two problems in connection withexecuting this programme and being successful at the Canada Cup and WorldChampionships. The first is that we need to raise about £60,000! But that's ourproblem, and it's not what I'm writing about.... The second problem is that our success in the EuropeanChampionships was largely down to a tremendous performance by our #1 pitcher, ayoung woman named Stacie Townsend who has just started her last year ofeligibility at the University of Texas El Paso. But we have very littlepitching behind her, and nothing of the quality required to back up Stacie at aworld level. So we're looking for pitchers, and because there aren'tany in the UK, we're hoping to find one or more good Canadian, Australian,American or whatever pitchers with a British parent. And because of theconnections between Britain and Canada, there have always been softball andbaseball players in Canada with at least one British parent; you just have tofind them! As you know, pitchers in fastpitch can throw much moreoften than in baseball, so we don't need a whole pitching staff; just anothercouple of decent pitchers will do. So ... the point of all this is to ask whether you wouldbe willing to put the word out through any academic or softball networks andpeople in Canada that you might have access to see if we can uncover a pitcherwith British heritage. By definition, she would be below the level required tomake Team Canada; but there are a lot of good pitchers in Canada below thatlevel who could help us. Anyone you uncover should contact me. Please let me know if you think there's anything you cando -- and thanks for your help! Below, I've pasted in a copy of the notice that I've beensending to US college coaches in case that might be useful. Regards, Bob Fromer GB Softball NOTICE TO COLLEGE COACHES Dear _________, The Great Britain Women's Fastpitch Team has qualified toplay in the ISF Women's World Championships in Oklahoma City in July 2010. We have a talented team that finished second in EuropeanChampionships this summer -- our highest-ever placing! -- but to competesuccessfully at the World Championships we need more pitching depth. So we are looking for good pitchers who have a Britishfamily heritage and who could qualify for a British passport if they don'talready have one. To qualify for a passport, the player must have been bornin Great Britain herself, or have a parent who is a British citizen and wasborn in Great Britain. Players with British grandparents or great-grandparentscannot qualify. We would be very grateful if you could check with the pitchersin your program to see if any of them might qualify -- and if so, please get intouch by contacting: Bob Fromer GB Softball Team Manager bobfromer(at)onetel.com (+44) 1886-884204 Hayley Scott GB Softball Head Coach hayley..scott(at)bsukmail.com (+44) 7713-245809 Thanks very much for your help! Regards, Bob Fromer GB Softball Al's Fastball News *Email: fastball(at)pmihrm.com fastb...@pmihrm.com NEWS-1: http://www.AlsFastball.com/ NEWS-2: http://fastpitchwest.com/alsfastball VIA http://www.webbox.com
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