The BSF is asking the softball community for nominations for its annual awards, for a series of coaching awards and for new inductees to the British Softball Hall of Fame, where inductions are made in even-numbered years.
Most of the awards will be presented, and the Hall of Fame inductions will take place, at the 2018 BSF AGM, scheduled for Saturday 24 February in Manchester.
However, BSF awards for Adult Softball Coach of the Year and Youth Softball Coach of the Year for 2017, along with a number of other coaching and volunteer awards where nominations can came from either softball or baseball, will be presented at BSUK’s 2018 Coach Summit, to be held on Saturday 27 January in Milton Keynes, through a collaboration between BSUK and the British Softball Federation.
The softball-specific coaching awards made at the Coach Summit will be referenced at the BSF AGM, and the BSF will reward the winners by buying their tickets to the next BSUK Coach Summit in 2019.
Coaching awards​
Nominations can be made for any of the following awards, which will be presented at the Coach Summit in January (only the first two awards listed are softball-specific; with the other awards, there could be either a baseball or softball winner):
- Youth Softball Coach of the Year. This award is for outstanding contribution to coaching young people in softball in Britain.
- Adult Softball Coach of the Year. This award is for outstanding contribution to adult softball coaching in Britain.
- Young Coach of the Year. This award is for the coach aged 22 or younger deemed to have made the biggest contribution to coaching, managing and supporting baseball and/or softball in England in 2018
- Participation Coach of the Year. This award is for a coach who has engaged new participants, not in a traditional club setting but within BSUK national programmes and/or participation projects.
- Services to Coaching Award. This award is made to the individual who best personifies what it means to be a baseball or softball coach: someone who understands their sport and can use the lessons learned on the pitch to motivate and engage others. They have probably played a great number of roles and without them coaching in your club, your league, your county or perhaps even your country wouldn’t be the same.
- Volunteer of the Year in softball or baseball. This award is for a volunteer in a non-coaching role who has given up a substantial amount of time to support their local club, team or league and who has made a significant impact on the development of our sports.
Nominations for these awards should be made on this form by no later than Thursday 30 November.
BSF annual awards
The BSF’s annual awards are given in the following categories for which nominations are received:
- The Glover Cup for outstanding long-term services to softball by an administrator or organiser.
- The President’s Club Award for outstanding performance or development by an affiliated club or team.
- The League Glover Cup for outstanding development achievement by an affiliated league.
- The Adult Softball Coach of the Year Award for the coach of an adult team. This is one of the two BSF awards that, as mentioned above, will be presented at the 2018 Coach Summit.
- The Youth Softball Coach of the Year Award for the coach of a youth team or programme. This is the other BSF award that, as mentioned above, will be presented at the 2018 Coach Summit.
- The Tournament Umpire of the Year Award.
- The Tournament of the Year Award.
- The Youth Team of the Year Award for outstanding performance or development achievement.
- The Betsy Holden Award for outstanding achievement by a young person in developing or promoting the sport.
The award for Tournament Umpire of the Year will be presented at the 2018 BASU AGM, scheduled for Saturday 10 February, and will be re-announced at the BSF AGM.
All nominations for the BSF’s annual awards should be sent to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) and should be accompanied by information supporting the nomination. The deadline for nominations is 5.00 pm on Friday 22 December.
Hall of Fame
The categories under which people can be nominated for the British Softball Hall of Fame are:
- Player.
- Umpire.
- Coach (for adult or youth teams).
- Manager (of clubs or national teams).
- Organiser/Administrator (for a league, BSF, BASU etc).
- Development work.
- Media work.
The criteria for nominations are:
- To be nominated, the person must have been active in the category in which they are being nominated for at least two years. This applies across all categories.
- People can only be nominated for the Hall of Fame after they have been “retired” for one year from being active in the category for which they are nominated – unless they have been active in that category for 10 years or more. In that case, they can be nominated even if still active.
- People can be nominated in a category in which they are no longer active even if still active in other categories.
- People can be nominated and elected in more than one category, but nominations for different categories need to be made and will be voted on separately.
- Non-British nationals can be nominated and elected to the BSF Hall of Fame provided they meet relevant criteria.
- In considering nominations, the BSF is not necessarily looking only for the “best of the best” in each category, but can also elect candidates for superior and/or inspirational performance.
All nominations for the BSF Hall of Fame should be sent to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) and should be accompanied by information supporting the nomination. The deadline for nominations is 5.00 pm on Friday 22 December.