Update: June 7
The Cinnaminson Elite Softball team will play its inaugural game on Wednesday, June 8 at 6:15pm at Wood Park Field #3. The team is playing a double header. The second game is scheduled for 8pm. We will have coverage of both games. Follow Cinn City Sports on Twitter for live updates throughout both games. The second game will be covered by Grace Shallow. You can follow her on Twitter here.
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The summer of 2016 will mark the start of an incredible opportunity for roughly 20 girls who play the game of softball for Cinnaminson. It will be the first season for a brand new Elite team in the township as it plays in a college league at Wood Park.
The league’s inaugural season was 2015, but Cinnaminson waited to gain entry into the league until after the first season so Elite head coach Tracy Bart could watch some of the league’s games.
“I wanted to make sure we are going to be able to compete in this league and I think we will. I think this will be good for us,” Bart said. “Our idea is for our kids to play a higher level of competition during the summer. Some of our kids play on travel teams, but not all of them do. It gives them an opportunity to play during the summer.”
Players who are going to be juniors, sophomores, freshman and eighth graders for the 2015-2016 school year were eligible to tryout for the team. This year’s seniors are not eligible for the team unless there is a shortage of girls.
“We want them to see quality pitching throughout the summer so when we return to the high school season we will be able to get more quality at-bats,” Bart said.
The Elite team will be part of the Cinnaminson Township girl’s softball program, which is led by a board of 15 people. The board is chaired by Randy MacNair. When asked about how the board came up with the Elite team idea, MacNair said the following:
“Basically, what we found is over the past couple of years our program has been getting a lot of out of town kids. We are trying to get more in-town girls to play and get them better so our high school team can get better. We want the feeder program to be strong. We have a new indoor facility. We have a lot of things going on and that’s what we are trying to do; lock in with in-town girls.”
The girls who play for the in-town program, at any level, will be able to train year-round at the new indoor facility in Cinnaminson. Training and coaching will be provided by in-town coaches, who will then turn the girls over to Coach Bart for the high school and Elite seasons.
“We want to take a high school-aged team and put them up against tougher competition,” MacNair said. “If the program stays on course, in a couple of years our elite team and high school team will get really strong.”
The first year for the college league saw only four teams take the field, but by the second year, there is a goal to field eight teams, including the Cinnaminson Elite team.
“We are kind of trying to bring everything back to Cinnaminson,” MacNair said. “We want to keep the alumni involved. There are more women involved on the board in town. We want to get our program like Robbinsville, which is an elite feeder program.”
The program resumed playing fall ball again this season and boasts about 200 girls across all levels, which MacNair said is down a little from in years’ past.
Games will be played on Sunday and Wednesday nights at 6 and 8, respectively.
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[…] President Randy MacNair said. “We have two U10 travel teams, a U12 team, a U14 team, and a team playing in a college league. There are more girls playing softball in the fall than ever before. We have the right coaches in […]