Welcome to the 2024-25 Summer season wrap-up edition of the Diamond Digest.
Season Summary
This summer we fielded 23 teams (senior and junior) and 231 players. We increased our women’s teams from 2 to 3 (almost 4!). Behind these 23 teams stands a team of volunteers who quietly put their hands up each week to keep things running. My heartfelt thanks to all the canteen workers, grounds keepers/setter-uppers/knocker-downers, umpires, scorers, team managers, coaches, committee members … and any other role/person I have forgotten.
Once again we had multiple teams in finals.We ultimately won 2 Junior premierships (6 in a row for Micheal Nakamura and his coaching panel, and 3 in a row for Leigh!) our Women’s State team went back-to-back, as did our PL1 Reserves team. Our Firsts and Thirds both finished their home and away seasons on top of their ladders, but couldn’t quite pull it off in the end.Just as important has been to see the camaraderie and improvement in skills across all teams.
My personal thanks go to the people who coach, manage, score, umpire, setup/knockdown grounds, operate the canteen and bar, drive their children all over Melbourne to play etc.Without your support and dedication we could not put a single player on the field and I thank you all sincerely.
Andrew Ferguson
President
Sponsors
Bendigo Bank
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We also ask that everybody support our many club sponsors and support partners:
The season formally finished with our highly-successful Senior Presentation Night held at Mulgrave Country Club last Saturday night. Around 165 people attended and had an enjoyable meal along with the presentation of awards for our 7 Senior Men’s teams, 3 Senior Women’s teams and Masters team.Once again club legend David Clarkson MC’d the night and kept us running to the very tight schedule.Many thanks Clarko.
The evening kicked off with a short speech by our local Federal member for Chisholm Dr Carina Garland.
Later in the evening Dr Katie Allen (Liberal candidate for Chisholm) announced a funding promise of $500,000 towards the development of our Indoor Training Facility should a Coalition government be elected. Dr Allen’s announcement certainly added a sense of excitement to the evening.
Congratulations to all our award winners, particularly to our Club Champion Reece Longstaff.Reece won with 28 votes.He picked up 47 hits from 111 AB across the full season including finals for a batting average of .423.He was closely followed on 22 votes by Mitch Homfray with 51 hits from 126 AB (.405) and Liam Evans with 41 hits from 108 (.380).Joseph Cuomo won our Golden Arm award with an ERA of 0.959.Joseph also won the Best Pitcher award in Premier League 1.Chris ‘Powza’ Powell won MVP in the Regional East competition.
For our Women’s State team, Alexis Smith won the MVP award and Caroline Greenwood won the Women’s Program Excellence Award.
We also recognised our Club awards and I would particularly like to congratulate the following deserving recipients:
Might Effort Award – Jenelle Stafilis
Peter Flintoff Best Supporter Award – Potts Family
Best Clubman Award – Bede Karlsen
Junior Presentation evening
Our Junior Presentation Evening took place on Friday, March 14, with an outstanding turnout. The vast majority of players were in attendance, joined by many parents and family members who came along to celebrate the achievements of our young athletes.
We are incredibly proud of the strength of our junior program. The success of our senior teams is a testament to the hard work being done at the junior level, and the future looks bright with so many talented 14–18-year-olds honing their skills under the guidance of our dedicated club stalwarts and coaches.
Congratulations to all award winners, particularly our major Junior award winners:
Alf Mann Junior Club Champion: Takuto Kawase
Peter Sparkman Award: Ethan Nakamura
Dick Mason Award: Hugh Hockley
Phil Dale Award: Nathaniel Keys
A special congratulations to Cooper Busch and Brodie Trevean on their selection for the 2025 Under-16 National Junior Squad. They will travel overseas later this year in July to wear the green and gold —a fantastic achievement!
Finally, a huge thank you to Angela Potts for stepping in to manage our juniors on short notice and doing an exceptional job. Your dedication is greatly appreciated.
Here’s to another successful year ahead!
Indoor Training Facility
The Site Plan for Napier Park is nearing completion and we are looking forward to reviewing it with the consultant and Monash Council.
As mentioned earlier, Dr Katie Allen (Liberal candidate for Chisholm) announced funding of $500,000 towards the development of our Indoor Training Facility should a Coalition government be elected.
Russell Clowes and I have been working very hard behind the scenes with Dr Allen to gain this funding and I would like to thank Russell for his assistance and Dr Allen for her generous support.
Bon Voyage Joseph Cuomo
Joseph flew back to the US on Tuesday. We would thank Joe for his contributions this season as a player and coach. We wish Joseph all the best for the upcoming Independent League season.
Many thanks to the Stafilis family also, who took Joseph into their house and treated them as a member of the family.
Winter
No sooner has summer baseball finished than preparations for winter ramp up.
At this stage we look like fielding 5 senior teams on Saturdays and, for the first time ever, a team in the Women’s competition on Sundays!!We also look like fielding 5-6 junior teams on Saturday mornings.As always, we continue to hunt for coaches, managers and scorers for these teams, as well as people who can umpire the games throughout the season.
On the Senior side of things, we hope to have a ‘Super Saturday’ every second weekend, with all five of our teams playing at Napier Park on the same day.
Once again we are seeking feedback from all members of the Waverley Family whether you play, support, volunteer, are a parent, … .Your thoughts are important to us and feed into the Committee’s decision-making.Responses are anonymous (although you can provide your contact details if you want us to contact you for follow-up).Please click the link below to see and complete the survey.
Once again the Japanese Friendship Games organised annually by Yoshi Nakamura of K2 Baseball and Softball will be played at Napier Park this week.Under 16 and Under 12 players from Japan will play games against teams from Waverley and across Melbourne on Thursday, Friday and Sunday.Come on down and watch some high-class junior baseball.
Many thanks also to Steph Evans and her team who are once again coordinating keeping many hungry players, umpires, spectators etc. fed and watered. Also thanks to our team of volunteers who are helping with field set-up and pack-up, and umpiring the 38 games across the series.
50th anniversary celebration
Waverley defeated Blackburn in the winter of 1975 to be promoted to ‘A Grade’ (the equivalent of today’s Premier League).We are hoping to contact all the players from this and earlier eras to come down to a celebration of this milestone at a date to be determined in early 2026.
If you know of the whereabouts of anybody who played with Waverley in 1975 or earlier please send me details at president@waverleybaseball.com.au.
Congratulations!!
Tommy Maxfield and Lisa; and Daniel Page and Eloise; are getting married in the upcoming weeks.Congratulations to you all and the entire Waverley family wishes you all the best on the day and into the future.
Donate-a-Slab is back!
Once again, we are running our Donate A Slab fundraiser.All you need to do is bring down a Slab of your choice – water, soft drink, sport drink or adult beverage – and leave it @ the bar.
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Do you have any news?
We are very proud of all current and former Waverley players and welcome any updates on their progress as they pursue their baseball dreams. Photographs, updates etc can be sent to me at hello@waverleybaseball.com.au
Also feel free to let me know of any other news the rest of the Wildcats community might be interested in. We publish blogs and newsletters regularly and are always looking for photos and stories of interest.
Many thanks to everybody who has rolled up their sleeves and assisted us with Canteen, Grounds maintenance and marking, Coaching, Scoring, Social functions, … . We just could not operate without the assistance of these people who give up their time.
Seconds go Back-to-Back Our Seconds defeated Geelong 11-2 in their Grand Final on March 15. We had Geelong under pressure from the outset, leading 5-0 after the second innings. Adam Bright and Jamie Papanicolaou dominated the Geelong hitters, allowing 8 scattered hits and two runs across 7 innings while we racked up 17 hits (spread across 11 hitters) and 11 …
Waverley Baseball Club welcomes Bendigo Bank as our new sponsor! Discover how this exciting partnership supports our club and community. Learn more today.
