We concluded our 2018 AGM and filled all but one vacancy, the U15 Bantam Director, anyone interested in joining the South Okanagan Minor Baseball Association board please contact us at, info@sombatigers.com.
I wanted to thank everyone who was on the board for the past season, the association had an absolutely incredible year. We increased membership by one full team, to 24 total spring teams playing baseball in the South Okanagan. Hosted multiple training camps in the spring, summer and fall, as well as being the host for the 13U Peewee play downs.
Fielded a total of SEVEN summer teams (one being U9 which does not have provincials), qualified FIVE of those teams for Provincials (11U AA, 13 U AA, 15U A and AA) and Won 3 Silver Medals at Provincials (13U AA, 15U A & 15U AA).

Our 13U and 15U AA teams had tremendous success in their spring seasons; 
The 13U team were the Interior Playoff Champs, were Silver medalists at the Provincial championships and won the Kamloops Fall Classic Tournament and ended up with an overall record of 41-10-1, amazing job by this group of players, coaches and families.

The 15U AA team had an incredible year as well, they finished with an overall record of 46-6, finished second in the 21 team provincial league, won the prestigious Tsawwassen Grand Slam Invitational tourney, third at the Valley of Champions, and Silver medalists at the Provincial championships. The team also had four players invited to the BC Baseball 15U Development Camp, with one player making it as an alternate. Two of our players were picked up by the Bantam AA Provincial Champions to join them in San Diego for the Summer Sizzle baseball tournament this past August.

The association offered year round baseball for players aged 9 – 18 years old, introduced our first ever Winter High Performance Program (Went really well), updated Constitution and Bylaws, defined board positions a bit better, created Team Fees, Fundraising and Sponsorship Policy, created Codes of Conduct for Coaches, Players and Parents, created Online Coaching Survey, 90 surveys received, this informed will be summarized and shared with the Coaches and Board members, overall positive feedback, and we now have 2 SOMBA members that are currently on the BC Baseball Board of Directors.

Looking forward to 2019 will see the return of High Performance baseball in our Midget program, and to welcome back Aqil Samuel and 5 Penticton players from the West Kelowna D’Backs College Prep Program, creation of Director of Coach/Player Development (Aqil Samuel), Junior DeLeon, from the Langley Blaze Baseball Academy, to run Winter baseball clinics and Marty Lehn from BLE Academy to run coaching and player clinics in early Spring.

Thank you to everyone for a great 2018 baseball and the future of baseball in the South Okanagan looks incredibly positive.

Iain MacIntyre
President, SOMBA