Happy 2018 Season Kickball Family!
The long offseason is coming to a merciful close, and we’ll soon be embarking on another journey to the heart of summer. As always, this season promises to be replete with sunshine, friendly rivalries, fierce competition, lots of libations, kickball under the lights, and for some teams, fortune and eternal glory.
As Jake’s recent post and the cacophony of comments that followed demonstrate, we continue to have a rich and diverse community filled with passionate players and great ideas. Although the board has been discussing various changes throughout the offseason, and continue to review and discuss ways to improve the league based on even more recent suggestions, the goals of the league remain unchanged: kickball, community, and camaraderie.
We will have more details about changes for 2018 in the annual commissioner’s post, but here are a few highlights:
-
Transparency and involvement: In addition to posting the annual financials on the website, we are looking at posting the board’s meeting minutes to keep the league abreast of deliberations. In addition, there will be an increased focus on involving team captains and the league writ large in decisions that impact us all.
-
Rules & Refs: The Board has decided to make a few tweaks to rules, mostly for the sake of clarity. We are going to clean up the wording regarding injured/scratched/added players (including pinch runner situations), and there will be a clear rule about tournament forfeits & double-forfeits. In addition, we are discussing the best way to handle illness/family emergencies in tournament play.
-
Competition Committee: We are still working out the details, but as a part of our involvement initiative, I have asked Alex Hawman to chair a competition committee that will examine the rules, ref requirements, and other aspects of league policy/competition in order to simplify and improve the rules, and generally improve the quality of the KVKL in-game experience. At present we envision this committee as being open to, at minimum, a captain/representative from every team. There has even been talk of broadcasting the meeting(s) via facebook live (get your popcorn ready). If this is something you would be interested in, get a hold of Alex or I and stay tuned for more info.
We have had some changes on the Board again this year. A special thank you to: Long-time board member Diana Garcia for her years of hard work, dedication, and scheduling savvy; Last year’s commissioner Ben Wright whose every action over the past few years was uniquely dedicated to the KVKL as family; Alexander Fox for ensuring that the trains ran on time and the fields were waiting for us; and Lauren Legaly, whose first year with the board has been cut short because of an exciting relocation, but whose insight and motivation were invaluable. You will all be sorely missed..
Stepping in for us this year are Katie Keating, Ethan Fincham, and David Shipley, all of whom have already shown great enthusiasm and brought fresh perspective to league logistics. Thank you all, and may the masses show you mercy.
Also a quick thank you also to everyone that planned and participated in the First Annual KVKL Pub Games Crawl. If you weren’t there, you missed out big time, but I expect you’ll have another chance this fall.
IMPORTANT DATES
Captains should have all received an email from Erin Adams with registration info. If you haven’t, or have any questions, please let us know.
April 2nd: New & Returning team rosters, Returning teams $250 league fees*, and 2 signed captains’ waivers from Returning teams are due (https://kawvalleykickball.com/team-registration.html). We, perhaps foolishly, also request that you turn in as many player waivers as possible at this time.
*$30 fee for team name changes (which includes a new placard for Hobbs scoreboard)*
April 15th: New teams: (if admitted) $250 league fees and 2 signed captain’s waivers due.
The Remaining Dates are looking good, but subject to change:
April 22nd: We are moving the Captain’s Meeting to a Sunday by popular demand, and are looking at having the Ref Clinic earlier this same day. At present we anticipate 12pm at Lyons for the Ref Clinic, and 6pm at the Jazzhaus for the Captain’s Meeting. Stay tuned for more details/confirmation. We encourage both captain and co-captain to attend, but you are required to send at least one representative from your team if neither captain can attend.
May 6th: Spring Charity Tournament – Starting at 12pm or 1pm (more details to come)
May 20th: Start of season
May 27th: No games (Memorial Day Weekend)
June 3rd: Regular Season games resume (week 2)
July 7th or 14th: Girl on Girl Clinic
Assuming there are no rain-outs, the Tournament finals should be August 19th.
2017 Charity Donations
You all deserve credit for our community contributions, and their positive impact in the lives of Lawrencians:
Girls Rock Lawrence – $1516.00
Headquarters – $500.00
Lawrence Humane Society – $10,000.00 (culmination of multiple years’ collections)
Holiday adopted family – $895.20 total on our adopted family for the holidays.
Caddystacks at the Library – $180.24, which in turn helped the library raise money for community literacy initiatives
2018 Charity
If you have a charity you would like the KVKL to consider supporting during the 2018 season send an email to . We already have some great suggestions but would love to hear from you. Â Likewise, we can always use more hands on deck for charity events, so if you’re looking to give back, don’t be a stranger.
Counting down the days! Can’t wait to see you all out there!
Ben