Welcome to season 12 of CAN softball! We are excited to get underway with CAN's longest running sport and we hope to have a great league of alumni chapters this year. Right now we are looking to slightly expand the league from the 70 teams of last season. We still plan on playing down on the open mall space around the Washington Monument and the Ellipse each night of the week starting at 6:30pm. We will also be playing several games on the Ohio Drive fields throughout the week, but we are also exploring other options for field space in both DC and Arlington.
Our all-volunteer co-ed league offers many great opportunities for alumni chapters to reach out to untapped alumni in the DC area and help renew a connection to their alma mater. Schools will be encouraged to continue traditional rivalries and create new ones. All local alumni chapters already involved with CAN are welcome to apply for the season. The CAN Sports Chair, Assistant Sports Chair, along with the appointed softball commissioners will review the applications based upon the guidelines spelled out below. Please note that meeting all of the guidelines does not guarantee a spot in the 2009 league as we will evaluate each application based on the strengths and weaknesses of what each team will bring to the league according to the space that we have available.
Chapter Consideration:
- Priority will be given to chapters that have a proven track record of successfully completing seasons in softball. "Successfully completing" a season takes in to account fulfillment of all requirements for the season (games, meetings, and field saving), sportsmanship, compliance with CAN rules, and participation in the post-season tournament.
- Secondary priority will be given to chapters that have a proven track record of successfully completing seasons in other CAN sports. "Successfully completing" a season takes in to account fulfillment of all requirements for the season (games, meetings, and field saving), sportsmanship, compliance with CAN rules, and participation in the post-season tournament.
- All teams must have the full support of the alumni chapter Board they represent and the chapter president will be notified of the team’s application into the league and s/he will need to verify the chapter's ability to sustain a team through promotions on the chapter website, mailings, newsletter, etc.
- Chapters that have consistently participated in CAN activities, attend monthly CAN meetings, and have shown a willingness to participate in events with other chapters will be given added consideration.
- All chapters are strongly encouraged to be member schools on the CAN Advisory Committee (AC). Participation on the AC will certainly be one of the considerations when teams are selected. AC application can be found here: http://www.dcalum.org/ACApplication.aspx
- Chapters must be able to field a team of approximately 20 people as player participation will fluctuate during the summer (vacations, injuries, other commitments, etc.) History has shown that teams who have only the minimum number of players for each game do not succeed either competitively or socially.
- While the only formal cost for the regular season is the $100 deposit defined below, all chapters are expected to have a full set of equipment (bases, strike mat, game balls, cones, etc.) for the team. Each school is also expected to participate in the post-season tournament, which will have a fee per player (last year’s fee was $40/player, and we hope not to see an increase this year).
- Each team MUST be flexible for the nights of the week on which games will be played. It will be impossible for CAN to schedule all games for a particular team on one night of the week. Teams should also be prepared to play at least four games on weekends during the season. Depending on the number of teams accepted this year, the minimum number of weekend games may increase. The commissioners will do their best to keep the game nights [of the week] as consistent as possible. Details on the exact nature of scheduling this season will be sent to teams who are accepted in to the league.
- Additionally, many of the game days this year may be dictated by the NPS permits that teams in CAN will (hopefully) receive.
Team Requirements:
- All coaches are expected to be from the sponsor university and one of the coaches is required to be an alumnus of that school.
- There will be an enforced 75% alumni rule this year for each game and the post-season tournament. It will be expected that 75% of the players in the batting order at all times in each game will be alumni from the sponsoring university. The commissioners will collect rosters after each game. Spouses will be considered alumni to fulfill the 75% requirement. Falsifying the alumni status of a player will result in the forfeiture of ALL games played by that player. For more on the alumni rules please see the CAN rules document at: http://www.dcalum.org/s/20/resources/Sports/2008-09%20CAN%20Rules.doc
- Each team will be expected to participate in the post-season tournament. See below for the tournament schedule. Teams should be prepared to have at least two volunteers available to assist at the weekend tournament on both days to help distribute water/sports drinks, pick up trash, distribute game balls to fields, distribute ice, help with parking, check people in, and/or help the commissioners/sports chairs with running the event. We are again evaluating having several tournament staff this year depending on cost.
- Teams will be expected to complete the full season of 14 games and all their associated responsibilities.
- While we are hopeful to receive a few permits for the field space around the Washington Monument this season, there still will not be enough permits for all of the games in the league this year. So teams will be expected to provide volunteers to save fields anywhere from 3-6 times on weekdays during the season. We hope to have this responsibility evenly distributed between all teams. Field savers must be available to be at the monument grounds no later than 2pm on game days, although this time may change as we evaluate the field availability during the season.
- Teams are required to have representatives attend all coaches' meetings, tournament planning meetings, and any other activity or requirement that is needed to run an all-volunteer league.
- As previously mentioned, all teams will be required to have a full set of equipment for each game. A complete equipment list will be provided at the coaches meeting but will consist mainly of bases, game balls, a strike mat, cones, and bats for your team. The designated home team is required to have their equipment on game day unless the coaches work out a different arrangement.
Application Process:
The application process this year will consist primarily of an online form filled out by an applicant designated by the alumni chapter. A follow-up email will be sent to the chapter President to confirm knowledge and support of the softball team. All chapters submitting an application agree to the requirements of the league and acknowledge the responsibilities that are expected of the coaches and players. Do NOT partially fill out an application and expect to update it later.
Teams will also be required to submit a $100 deposit this year with their applications. Once the chapter president approves of the application an email will then be sent to the designated coach regarding this payment (if you do not receive this email in the days following your application submission, I would suggest you contact your chapter president directly to move this process along). Similar to last year, this $100 deposit will probably not go towards tournament costs. As the cost of running the league has gone up, the need to supplement the individual tournament fees has been necessary. If we find that we have a surplus in funds as the tournament draws closer, we may reevaluate the need to keep the $100 in deposits. Universities who are denied entry in to the league will have their deposit refunded. After being accepted into the league, any team that leaves the league either voluntarily or due to the three strike rule will not be refunded their deposit.
Please be aware that the application WILL close at 5pm on Friday, March 6th. Any application not fully completed with president approval and $100 deposit submitted will not be considered. Please allow some time for your chapter president to respond! DO NOT EXPECT TO SUBMIT YOUR APPLICATION FRIDAY AFTERNOON AND HAVE ALL THE NECESSARY REQUIREMENTS COMPLETED!!!
Approximate Timeline: March 16 (7pm, Location: TBD) - Coaches Meeting Pre-season party: date and location TBD until sponsor bar is identified. April 6 or 14 – Season Begins (waiting until we have sponsor bar identified before committing to start date) Midseason party: date and location TBD until sponsor bar is identified. July 10 – Tournament rosters due July 27-31 – rain make up games All-star weekend: date and location TBD until sponsor bar is identified. August 8, 9, 15 (Goddard) – Softball tournament (these are still tentative until we get it locked in with Goddard, but these are the dates that we are looking at right now) * Some dates are subject to change. In addition to the above dates, we are going to have some weekend dates at Goddard this year. We have requested 1 day in May, June, and July to have double-header games. The tentative dates are May 16, June 27, and July 18. Similar to last year, these will require a small fee to help pay for the fields for this year (last year it was like $20 per team, which is less than what some of the fields in the area cost). Once we have a handle on how many teams and how many games will be playing out there, I'll let you know how much it'll be. Depending on how the budget looks towards the end of the season, we might be able just pay for it all through CAN funds, but we'll just see how it goes. If everyone likes doing these weekends out there we might see what we can do about doing more than 3 in future years. If you have any more specific questions about the application process or the requirements/expectations for the teams please feel free to email the commissioners or sports chairs (contact information can be found at: http://www.dcalum.org/Sport.aspx?id=2). I hope to see many of you out on the field soon. Thanks, Chris Maurer, CAN Sports Chair Nick Walkosak, CAN Assistant Sports Chair Melissa Coughlin, Softball Commissioner Dan Duggan, Softball Commissioner Pam Krieger, Softball Commissioner
Feb 17 - Begin Applications
March 6 at 5pm - Applications Close
March 6 - T-minus 30 party - time and location TBD until sponsor bar is identified.
March 11 – Team and divisions announced
