BSUK Youth Panel announces 2011 Young Volunteer Awards

Thu 1 Dec 2011

The BaseballSoftballUK Youth Panel launched its first Young Volunteer Awards this year to recognise the work of all those young volunteers who help to run and develop baseball and softball teams, clubs and leagues around the country. Now the winners for 2011 have been announced.

The four categories in which people could be nominated in 2011 were:

Baseball Young Volunteer of the Year
Volunteer Young Baseball Coach of the Year
Softball Young Volunteer of the Year
Volunteer Young Softball Coach of the Year

The winners and a summary of their contributions are below.

Baseball Young Volunteer of the Year

The winner is Chantelle Altham of Cartmel Valley Baseball Club.

Chantelle's nomination was based on her commitment to the club's Pony team and her work with the Cartmel Rookies as an Assistant Coach.

She is seen as a person full of enthusiasm, kindness and patience, the very qualities that make her such an excellent coach with the very youngest Rookies at Cartmel.

Chantelle is an invaluable member of the coaching team, inspiring the next generation of young baseball players.

Volunteer Young Baseball Coach of the Year

The winner is James Pearson of Cartmel Valley Baseball Club.

James has devoted the last four years to his own coaching development and became the youngest qualified Level 3 Coach in the UK in 2009.

He was an Assistant Coach for the GB Cadet teams in 2010 and 2011, specialising in catching, and was invited to Canada to experience college coaching as part of the MLB Envoy Scheme.

James has sacrificed a lot of his own playing time to coach club, Academy and National Team players. When not coaching, he has often been active behind the scenes, fundraising or just helping out -- preparing the field at home, visiting schools or helping at MLB Roadshows and the 2011 National Baseball Championships.

Softball Young Volunteer of the Year

The winner is Emma-Louise Allen of Chalfont Softball Club.

As Chalfont Softball Club Secretary, Emma supports the Chairman in making sure the club runs smoothly. In addition to her Secretary duties this season, Emma has helped coach at junior softball taster sessions, helped run a softball taster at a local rugby club, volunteered on the club’s Development Committee, helped organise the club’s annual President’s Day and co-captained the club’s third team.

And Emma has done all of this with a smile always on her face!

Volunteer Young Softball Coach of the Year

The winner is David Hurley from the University of Portsmouth.

David was responsible for organising an U-25 student team that entered the Softball World Series this year. He has also done a great of work promoting university softball in 2011 and has started an Indoor League in Portsmouth over the 2011-2012 closed season.

David also provided invaluable support to the London Fastpitch Softball League in 2011 as an umpire.

Rewards

The winner in each category has received a certificate, an engraved plaque and a prize in the form of BaseballSoftballUK merchandise.

Luis Arrevillagas, BSUK's North West Regional Development Manager and national lead for the BSUK Youth Panel and Jennifer Rugen, Chair of the Youth Panel, would both like to see more people under 25 years of age join the Youth Panel and get involved in shaping the development of our sports.

Luis said: "We want to hear from all the young people in teams and clubs and we want to hear their ideas. We also want to hear from older people in those teams and clubs with nominations for Young Volunteer awards in the coming years."