Softball Victoria (SV) became the second Softball Australia Member State to become part of the One Softball management model in March 2021.

Following the Board’s decision to join One Softball, SV has been able to enhance and expand its operations in the participation and development space.

SV recently announced their staff restructure – an important element to ensuring resources are allocated in-line with One Softball’s strategic direction to ultimately increase participation nationwide.

This expansion included the appointment of Justin Zelones as the new Participation Coordinator of South East Melbourne and Regional Victoria.

Adding to the established participation team consisting of Tim Hatzi (Senior Participation Coordinator West and North regions) and Danielle Rigg (Participation Coordinator East Metro), Victoria now has more support in place for Associations and Clubs than ever before.

In addition to the experienced participation team, SV have direct access to Softball Australia’s resources under One Softball – to help address the long-term membership challenge and provide additional support to affiliate Victorian Associations and Clubs to increase membership and participation.

National Participation and Club Development Manager Nick Frayne said SV’s growing participation team has given Member Associations and Clubs a boost.

“A large focus for Softball Australia within the One Softball structure is to deliver improved resourcing to Members, Clubs and Associations by building proficiency at all levels of the sport,” he said.

“The staff restructure, specifically to our growing participation team, will allow the sport to deliver on the new National Participation Plan to be released in the near future, and provide focused support to our volunteers at community level.”

“We have been lucky enough to secure some fantastic, experienced and passionate staff that not only understand sport, but have experience in the schools system to improve our footprint in primary school sport.”

Under One Softball the sport will improve by;

• Growing the sport and addressing the long-term membership challenge;
• Ensuring long-term financial sustainability;
• Ensuring a consistent and coordinated approach to the experience of everyone involved in softball;
• Delivering improved services to Members, Clubs, Associations and the wider Softball community by building capability and capacity at all levels of the sport, and;
• Increasing revenue through the pooling of all commercial assets from States and the National body resulting in increased attractiveness to commercial partners for marketing and brand building purposes.