Girls Softball

1. Girls Softball

2. Agenda • About • Demographic studies • Current known programs locally • Why Softball • D5 run program • Close/Questions

3. Girls Softball Growth • Began in 1974 • Spread west in early ’80’s • 4% incremental growth over 2005 Source: http://www.littleleague.org/media/06participation.asp

4. Demographics • Area bound by local ASA programs • ASA has programs from Carmichael to Rocklin for a total of 21* programs • (Orangevale merged with Fair Oaks last year) • Typical league will grow to ~13 teams or ~150 players • Softball centric programs and ‘only game in town’!

5. Current local SB programs • D5 – Sunrise Little League 2005 • ~110 players in 2006 • D7 – North Natomas/Rio Linda/West Sac SB LL all 2005 • D54 – Lakeside (Granite Bay) 2006 • D11 – Auburn LL has integrated with ~250 Girls Goal: Proliferate program throughout D5

6. Why Softball? • Adds new element to your program • Excitement and cheering energizes your current programs • Helps grow your program • More Baseball players will come • Title IX & AB:2404 • Additional catalyst for change in how we do things today!

7. What is Title IX? Congress enacted Title IX to serve as a catalyst against sex discrimination at federally funded academic institutions, to encourage the development of athletic programs for female student-athletes, and to stimulate female participation in school sports. Within eleven years of Title IX's enactment, statistics revealed that progress was being made toward these goals. In 1983 more than 150,000 women were participating in college sports, compared to 32,000 in 1972, while the number of colleges and universities offering athletic scholarships to women increased from 60 in 1974 to over 500 in 1981. And… • AB 2404: A bill prohibiting gender discrimination in youth athletic programs passed the California legislature in 2004. What does this mean? • “… that cities, counties and special districts may not discriminate against any person on the basis of sex or gender in community youth athletic programs or in the allocation of parks and recreation facilities and resources that support or enable these programs.” • Entities to make available funds, staff, and resources for equal distribution to both genders of community youth athletics facilities. • Sunrise RPD has been instructed to request rosters from youth groups that use our facilities to help us determine current gender ratios. This will assist us in forecasting what facilities need the most adjustment, and will allow us to begin steering towards those goals. • The bill is pretty specific about equal quality of facilities in addition to equal quantity of facilities. If the fields that the boys use have covered dugouts and drinking fountains, the girls field must have similar amenities. It could become costly to agencies and youth sports groups. It could result in some big changes in how facilities are allocated to youth groups. It could cause a lot of bad blood between youth groups. We believe that the end result will be very positive, but there will likely be many challenges along the way. -Barry Ross SRPD

8. 2007 D5 Plan • D5 run program • Similar to how >13 yr old programs currently are run • Fields allocated by participating league’s • Scheduled through D5 • Consistent rules that are not league bound • Min play, continuous batting order, etc… • D5 interface/involvement • Umpire development

9. Questions