ACT Eagles
Baseball Club

Good evening everyone, and thank you for coming along tonight.

When we stood here twelve months ago, the outlook was not so strong. We had come through one of the most difficult periods in the club's recent history. We were struggling for senior numbers, we couldn't field a second grade team, and there were genuine questions about what the next few years might look like.

Fast forward to today, and the picture is quite different.

Second grade were minor premiers. Third grade were minor premiers. First grade were competitive all season. Fifth grade made significant strides forward. Most importantly, our junior program has become the benchmark for baseball in Canberra, with strong numbers, strong participation, and strong results across every age group.

That turnaround does not happen by accident. It happens because of people.

Players who commit to training and games every week. Coaches who invest countless hours developing others. Parents who spend their weekends driving, scoring, canteen volunteering and supporting the club. And a committee that has worked year-round on the hundreds of tasks that most members never see.

I'd particularly like to acknowledge the committee and volunteers who have carried a huge workload last season. The club simply does not function without you. Whether it's registrations, finances, field preparation, junior coordination, canteen operations, coaching, fundraising, or administration, every one of those contributions matters.

One of the things I am most proud of is that we are not just growing numbers. We are building a great culture.

We are creating a club where juniors want to stay, where families want to be involved, and where senior players want to contribute beyond their own team. That's what creates long-term success. Not a single premiership season, but a sustainable club that keeps getting stronger year after year.

As we look ahead, there is plenty to be excited about.

We have a strong pipeline of junior players moving into the senior ranks. We have momentum across the club. We have dedicated volunteers and a clear direction. And as we continue towards our 60th anniversary, I genuinely believe the Eagles are in the strongest position they have been for many years.

To everyone who contributed this season, players, coaches, volunteers, families and sponsors, thank you.

We're proud of how far we've come, but we're not finished yet. There is work to be done this coming season, in particular around strengthening our finances and ensuring that we get our fundraising right for our 60th anniversary. I urge anybody who is interested to make a difference for the club in 2026/27 that they should join the committee and make an impact where they can.

The future of this club is bright, and I can't wait to see what we achieve together next season.

Thank you.

Eagles Senior Presentation

We had such a fantastic night celebrating our Senior Eagles at their presentation evening recently. Our senior players, families, coaches, volunteers and supporters came together to recognise not just achievements on the field but also the strength of our Eagles community that makes this club so special.

A huge congratulations to all our senior award recipients for the 2025/26 season. Your leadership, commitment and passion for the game set the standard for our club.

🏆 1st Grade Awards • MVP: Sora Sakashita • Batting Award: Sora Sakashita • Players’ Player: Sora Sakashita

🏆 2nd Grade Awards • MVP: Hamish McGuire • Batting Award: Hamish McGuire

🏆 3rd Grade Awards • MVP: Callum McNicol • Batting Award: Andrew Tharle

🏆 5th Grade Awards • MVP: Ryan Evans • Batting Award: Geoff Shaw

🎖️ Club Awards • Venables Pitching Award: Sora Sakashita • President’s Award: Neil Barrett • Senior Clubman: Ben Dries • Gillie Award: Ryan Little

To every senior player who pulled on the Eagles jersey this season - thank you for representing the club with pride. To all our coaches, scorers, umpires, volunteers and supporters, we see you and appreciate everything you do!

This season has been the hardest that I can remember, but also one of the most rewarding. It has been a challenging one in terms of playing numbers in the higher grades, but we have an awesome number of juniors. At the start of this season, we lost several players from last year's 1st and 2nd grade squads, but we have been able to get valuable game time into several players under the age of 18.

We were unable to field a second grade team, but with the support of other clubs, we had a number of players who were able to play at that level through Vikings, Indians and Bears. In the upside and moving forward, I believe that we have a number of very experienced senior players returning to the club next season and they will form the nucleus of a strong 2nd grade team next season, with the intention to keep our younger players pushing into 1st grade and forming their own nucleus in that grade for the next decade to come.

I feel that our young players have improved out of sight this season and I have no doubt that they will be top level A grade ballplayers in the years to come. I would also like to take this opportunity to announce the Developing Eagles off season program, which will be run by Andrew Tharle. This includes a one-on-one discussion with the 15 to 18 year old players to identify areas where they will benefit most from training and a weekly program which will be tailored to their needs. The sessions will begin four weeks after the schoolboys tournament concludes.

We had in previous years only had two imports play for the club, but this year we had five. Through building relationships with quality Japanese players over the past five seasons, we are now a destination club in Canberra for Japanese players. I believe that our Japanese players have not only taught our younger players to play better, but also to be better baseball citizens and appreciate that the game is bigger than any one player, team or competition.

Two of our four senior teams made the grand final and four out of six junior teams made the grand final, including in the Little League major age group where the two Eagles teams played each other in the grand final. That's 60% of the players at our club playing in a grand final this season which is an amazing achievement. We also won the junior club championship for the third consecutive year.

We undertook a renovation of the Kambah baseball diamond and the weather was not kind to us in Spring, pushing the work by the ACT government well into the season. Due to a lack of resources and the uneven nature of the field, the committee made a decision to remove the base paths as they were constantly flooding and we were losing game time every season. The government was intending to replace our entire infield with new turf, but this was not possible due to the weather delays and lack of available material. We did however repaint the murals on the dugouts, which I'm sure you will agree look excellent. I think that it will take at least another 12 months of work until the diamond looks great, but we will get there. Special thanks to Cal McNicol for doing the early grunt work on this and to Shelley Taylor for continuing it. As always, more people with shovels are always welcome and at least a dozen people in this room were excellent contributors at our working bees.

I'd like to thank the committee, and in particular Kelly Hackett for her dedication to running the canteens. Thanks to Pete Corcoran for stepping into the Senior President's role and to BJ Lentell for dedicating his time as a first grade coach, as well as Cal and Dan for coaching, and of course, all of the brilliant scorers that we have.

I hope that you have a relaxing off season and I hope to see every single one of you in October this year.