Organization Preview: Sherwood Park Storm
/ GPLS.ca | 12:40
We continue our season previews this week as we start our way east and catch up with the nascent Sherwood Park Storm program.
Organization Preview: Sherwood Park Storm
Which ever flavour of softball you prefer, more than likely, Sherwood Park Storm has that selection.
With teams from U8 to U19, some divisions in the Storm organization have up to five teams, ranging from travel rep programs to house league teams, all under the Sherwood Park Minor Softball banner.
“We’ve developed a full menu of options for softball players,” said Sherwood Park president Pete Gogich. “We have everything from house league to teams looking to go to provincial level championships and then those teams that are vying for positions in national Canadian championships. We’ve been able to capture a lot of interest from girls in our community.”
It’s created a one-stop shop for Sherwood Park, whose players can play on house league or travel teams, mingling on occasions in order to better the program as a whole. It means the quality of coaching, instruction, and training are kept to a high standard across the board and allows any girl, no matter what skill level, to find a team to play on and wear the Storm jersey.
“We’ve been moving in that direction the last couple of years,” said Gogich. “It’s a little bit different than what is out there right now and it’s our best way of retaining players.”
It keeps the players in the Storm system, which has helped them retain high level players and amass an organization of over 250 players. It can create some challenges when trying to accommodate something for everyone, but Gogich said with a strong executive and past players coming back to help and stay involved in the sport, it has helped to keep the ship sailing smoothly across every division and team.
“We have a large community, our county is quite large, so to attract players to come in to Sherwood Park is our main focus,” said Gogich. “All the organizations in Zone 5 are strong for sure.”
Sherwood Park will have high expectations for their teams heading into Girls Prairie League Softball (GPLS) competition this season, as last year the U12A Team were league champions.
Their U12 team is an established team that have played together for some time, and with strong coaching and all the work the team has put in, they are also expected to go far this season.
Check out our other organization previews:
