Congrats to 2011 Pitchball Champions - ER Pitchball Black!

From Head Coach Gary Maki:  "We followed up our 2nd place regular season finish with a 4-0 run in the playoffs to bring home the victory for ERAA!  We had a pretty strong Sunday performance with a 17-2 win and a 25-7 win the championship game.  Finished the year 12-3, and the girls made some great new friends and had a blast."

Coach Bremseth's 10U Team Shows What Raptor Spirit Is All About

On Sunday, June 6, Mark Bremseth's 10U softball team became Co-Champions of the Tricounty Tournament. The girls "played their hearts out with phenomenal pitching, stellar fielding, timely hitting and flawless base running" - resulting in a co-championship with Eagan. 

Coach Bremseth recapped, "...both teams struggled to stand upright in the dark and we decided the Co-Champ solution was best. At about 9:00 that night, both teams agreed that 'enough is enough' and decided to end it with Eagan getting the #1 seed to State (as they were the higher seed coming in). ER Gold received #2 but declared the tournament a draw between the two teams and naming them Co-Champions.  New medals will be made and distributed at State."

 

"These young ladies have come a long way since struggling to eek out a couple of wins against a week team in our first game and now we look forward to state as the #2 seed in the highest 10U bracket.  To coin a phrase, 'these girls ROCK'! "

Get Ready for Fall Softball!

Fall Ball is just around the corner!   
We need both players and volunteer coaches! Cost per player is estimated to be about $75.00 per player. Registration will be available on our website. If you are interested in coaching, please contact Art Plautz.

View Tri-County info

Clinics are available! See details and sign-up forms.

Tryouts for the 2012 Softball Season will be October 1-2, 2011 at ERHS Fields. Watch for more details on our website.

Congratulations Raptors!
Three East Ridge softball teams qualified for Nationals. 10U Gold - Coach Mark Bremseth, 12U Gold - Coach Todd Youngstrom and 14U - Coach Bob Falk. Outstanding results for our 2nd full year and only having 6 teams!! These same three teams were also first place tournament winners!
 

 View game highlights

View game highlights

View game highlights 

Good Luck to all Raptor Teams in upcoming games and tournaments. Have a Happy and Safe 4th of July!

Thanks to all the Raptor teams that helped make the Sunday Social Skills event a success!

Do you have photos of your favorite team you'd like to share? Put them in your coach's Drop Box and we'll post to the website, Facebook and online newsletter. 

Raptor Rec Classic T-Shirts

We will have a tent set up early Saturday to pick up Raptor Rec Classic TShirts previously ordered.  We will have a limited supply of extra shirts.  Cost is $15/shirt due on pickup.

New Woodbury Fields Policy enacted by City Council

On Wed, June 8th, the Woodbury City Council passed a resolution changing their approach to permitting fields for in-house sports programs beginning in 2012.  The City Council of Woodbury does not support having in-house sports (those that use outdoor fields) that follow a school draw.  A series of meetings will be held with the respective associations in July to explain the new directive.  The criteria for granting this exclusion and the City Council directive is attached.  As we understand the policy - only one association will be granted Level III priority. 

How does this potentially affect ERAA?  If we are not granted Level III status, then we will fall under a lower Priority Level and will have to pay for field use and will have use of fields not claimed by the Level III program.   If you value what we have created and believe this policy is unfair to those in the East Ridge community please voice your concerns to your city council member:  http://www.ci.woodbury.mn.us/government/mayor-a-city-council.  Additionally, the Cottage Grove Parks and Recreation Department is considering a mirror-image policy as well.  To contact them go to http://www.cottage-grove.org/parks.htm

We welcome your comments and questions and look forward to working with you to continue to provide a place for our girls to play recreational softball with ERAA.

To reiterate our current state of ERAA Raptor Rec Softball:

We play cooperatively in a league with CGAA

We have not had an issue with scarcity of softball fields – in our two seasons of play the City of Woodbury has allocated the Bailey 3 and 4 fields to ERAA Raptor Rec – with remaining fields in Cottage Grove. 

We have doubled in size and now have over 100 families in the Rec Softball program alone.

Feel free to contact ERAA Raptor Rec Softball Director Bruce Bialka at bbialka@comcast.net with comments and questions.  Go Raptors!!

Congrats Raptor Rec All-Stars!!

Congratulations to the girls selected to represent their Raptor Rec teams in the upcoming All-Star Games:

Minors

Gold     Hanna Struss

Gold     Amber Van Voorst

Gold     Samantha Wynn

Black    Mikayla Manders

Black    Allison Marcus

Black    Nicole Noreen

Black    Marissa Fischer

Pee Wees

Gold     Isabella McDonnell

Gold     Grace Anderson

White   Maddie Knupp

White   Maria Soutor

Black    Abagael Cook

Black    Ella Stegeman

Pitchball

Gold     Anna Vlaisavljevih

Gold     Taylor McGowan

White   Alison Quirk

White   Ellie Flynn

Black    Meghan Tracy

Black    Kylee Leithauser

Join Us for Softball Social Skills Tonight!

Don't forget! Tonight is Social Skills Sunday! Join us at ERHS Fields at 6PM for a 1 hour practice with Eric Heflin, followed by a BBQ dinner. This week, Eric will cover fielding skills and base running.

Mark your calendar- the last Social Skills clinic will be on Sunday June 19 from 6-8 PM. Location to be announced.

Social Savvy

TwitPic is a service that can be used to add photos and videos to your tweets, making them more likely to be read and shared with others. To use TwitPic, simply visit www.twitpic.com and sign in using your Twitter login information. From TwitPic’s homepage, you can browse the photos and videos on your computer and select one for upload. After allowing space for the TwitPic length, you will have 114 remaining characters for your tweet. 

Take the Softball Challenge and Win a Gordman's Gift Certificate!

There's still time to step up to the challenge! Answer the Softball Challenge Questions on the ERAA Facebook page. For everyone that posts and answer, their name will be entered into a drawing for a Gordman's gift certificate. (It doesn't matter if someone has already posted an answer, you will still be entered into the drawing if you post an answer). Correct answers will be posted in July.

Join Us for Softball Clinics and the Rec All-Star Game!

Two Clinics on June 5th:

• Pitchball League Hitting Clinic at Bailey #3, 6:30 pm
  
• The next Social Skills clinic will be at ERHS fields. Practice starts at 6PM, food will be served at 7PM. This is a free clinic open to all East Ridge competitive softball teams.

Get ready for the Rec All-Star Game
on Saturday, June 18th!  
In conjunction with Strawberry Fest in Cottage Grove there will be a ERAA/CGAA Rec All-Star game for Pitchball, PeeWee and Minors teams at Grey Cloud elementary.  Teams will be selecting their All-Stars in the near future and we want teammates to come out and cheer them on!!  There will be a carnival on the Grey Cloud grounds so the whole family can come out for a day of fun!

Rename Varsity Field

Be sure to submit your vote to give Varsity Field a new name. The poll will be open for one more week.

Training Tidbit: Pitching

Sunday Social Skills for Competitive Softball Players

As part of our player development program, Eric Heflin, Player and Coach Development Director, and our Competitive team coaches planned 3 Sunday evening events centered around a 1 hour practice session followed up by a Bar-B-Q. The dates are May 15th, June 5th and June 19th. 

We had our first Sunday Social this past Sunday and over 50 girls came to get a hitting lesson and then it was time for a picnic, hence our name Sunday Social Skills. Practice started at 6pm and the food was served at 7pm. We served up 80 hot dogs in all and our Super Raptor Grill Master, Jeff Bria, did a fantastic job.  Thanks to Eric Heflin, Kalli Heflin, Erica Bohlke and Kelsy Bria for their hitting expertise and to Art Plautz for the organization and for bringing the food.  

Future practices will again be guided by Eric Heflin and will focus on the fundamental skills of throwing, catching and hitting. These practice sessions are open to all ERAA competitive softball players and families. It's a great opportunity to get a little extra practice in and then have some food and fun!  Remember the next two dates are Sunday, June 5th and Sunday, June 19th.

Private hitting clinics are also available by Eric Heflin. Get details. 



Don't forget to vote on a new name for Varsity Field!
So far, the two popular names are Field of Prey and The Cage. The poll is still open, cast a vote for your favorite name!

Training Tidbits: Catching

Social Savvy

QR Codes – Get Information Quickly Using Your Smart Phone

A QR Code (Quick Response Code) is a two-dimensional code that can be read by a QR Code reader from a camera phone (smart phone).  The code consists of black modules arranged in a square pattern on a white background. The information encoded can be text, URL or other data. You have probably seen these in advertisements. Some retailers offer exclusive deals with QR codes, so be sure to scan them if you see them!

To scan QR codes, your mobile device must have a QR code reader installed. A popular FREE QR code reader can be downloaded from: www.Scanlife.com

Try it yourself – scan this QR code to add the Social Skills training event to your calendar on your smart phone.

A Standing Ovation for the ERAA Recreational Softball Coaches

The ERAA Raptor Recreational softball program has more than doubled in size this spring!!  We are very happy with the growth in our program and even happier with all of the Head Coaches and Assistants that have stepped up to bring the game of softball to our girls.  We have listed all those that are head or assistant coaches for one of the Raptor Rec teams.

Be sure to say thank you to your head coach and assistants for all the extra work they do for your daughters.  Also, a special thanks to Bruce Bialka, Director of Raptor Rec.  Bruce has done a great job creating and organizing Raptor Rec into the successful program that it is.  We wish all of you a great spring and summer of Raptor Softball.

Tee-Ball Head Coaches:  Susan Mestery, Shawn Shanley
Tee-Ball Assistants:  Bill Sukup, Brett Stevens, Christine Barry

Pitch Ball Head Coaches:  Dave Flynn, Joe Slavin, Gary Maki
Pitch Ball Assistants:  Tim McGown, Mike Lenarz, Christopher Radecki, Brady Harrison, Jesse Kaul,

Pee Wee Head Coaches:  Mike Corcoran, Andy Christenson, Scott Shaver
Pee Wee Assistants:  Daren Stegeman, Jeff Knupp, Jim McDonnell, Jodi Lippert

Minors Head Coaches:  Mandy Durose, Tom Anderson
Minors Assistants:  Paul McGuire, Arlen Marcus, Dave Olsen

Congratulations to Scott Shaver's team for winning an ice cream party. 
They sold 22 Twins tickets! Unfortunately, we didn't meet our fundraising goal but we do appreciate the support that everyone provided for this event.

We Need Your Vote on the New Varsity Field Name

Thank you for submitting your ideas for renaming Varsity Field. The Board has selected a final list from your suggestions. Please take a minute to cast a vote for your favorite name. 

Training Tidbit: Base Running

  
Social Savvy

Twitter is a live information network where users share short clips of information called tweets. A tweet can be up to 140 characters long, and can include links to other sources of information, such as a website or video. Tweets are like a headline – succinctly announcing an event, or idea.  It’s a great tool for those that dislike reading lengthy email! Use Tweets to capture attention, and use links to guide readers to more detailed information. Watch a video to see how Twitter works, or read more about Twitter basics. 

TIP:

Using hashtags in your Tweets can help people find information about a specific topic. A hashtag is a symbol (#) that is inserted as a prefix to a word to identify a topic. 

Readers on Twitter can click a hashtag to see any other current tweets with the same hashtag, making it an easy way to categorize tweets according to topic or community. Readers can also use Twitter’s search tool to search for messages with a particular hashtag. To learn more about hashtags, visit the Twitter Help Center. To see hashtags in action, try performing a search for the hashtag #softball. And if you’re new to Twitter or thinking about joining, don’t forget to follow @ERAASoftball.

A Round of Applause for ERAA Competitive Softball Coaches

The ERAA Softball season officially started this last week with the 12U Competitive teams playing their first games on Monday!!  All other teams will begin their games in the very near future.  We would like to recognize the coaches and assistant coaches who are working hard to create a great softball experience for your daughter.  A lot of work and preparation goes into coaching a softball team.  The coaches have spent time in the off-season at coaches clinics, helping with ERAA softball clinics, and working to organize the team and their assistants.  

Please let your coaches know that you appreciate their efforts and the extra time that they volunteer to ERAA Fastpitch Softball.  Special thanks to Art Plautz, Competitive Softball Director.  Art has done a great job organizing the teams and coaches.  Best wishes to all of you for a successful and fun summer full of softball.

Not pictured:
Brian Nerison, Greg Mallak, Kevin Mell, Mike Groch, Jill Whistler, Mark Bremseth, Mike Conklin, Jim Lemire, Mark Whitman

It was great seeing everyone at the ERAA Youth Softball Night!

Be sure to check out all the photos! 

2012 Competitive Softball Try Outs will be October 1-2, 2011. Location will be announced.

Training Tidbit: Infield and Outfield

Twins Tickets are still available for purchase until May 9!


Photos of all the Raptor teams are needed for the web site. Please send any you'd like to share!

Hey Raptors, show off your softball expertise and win a Gordman's gift certificate! 

Watch for Softball Challenge Questions on the Raptor Facebook page. For each question you answer, your name will be entered into a drawing for a Gordman's gift certificate. Rules: Limited to ERAA Raptor softball players only. One drawing entry per player for each question. Winners will be announced near the end of the season.

Help Us Hit Our Fundraising Goals Out of the Park!

ERAA needs your support! If you haven't purchased tickets to the Twins Game, be sure to do so - all orders and payment are due on May 9.

If you haven't purchased because you are not able to attend the game, ask friends, co-workers and other family members to purchase a ticket. The funds are needed to support ERAA Softball. Download the ticket order form from our website.

Ice Cream Party Competitors

The team that has sold more than 20 Twins tickets wins an ice cream party for their team. Ticket sales to date per team are:

Rec PeeWee Gold (Shaver) - 22, Rec TeeBall Black (Mestery) - 17, Traveling 10U (Whitman) - 15, Traveling 14U (Falk) - 12, Rec Minors Gold (Anderson) - 8, Rec PeeWee Black (Corcoran) - 5

Join Us Tomorrow (May 2) for Youth Softball Night!

This fun, free, family event has something for everyone. See event details.

Where: East Ridge High School Varsity Field

When: Monday, May 2nd. Varsity softball game begins at 4:15

Raptors - show your support of the varsity team by wearing your softball jersey to school tomorrow!

Share Your Photos! 

We're always looking for photos of our softball community for our website. If you have photos you'd like to share, send them to us!

Training Tidbit - Fielding Ground Balls

This Week in Softball: Introducing ERAA's New Director of Player and Coach Development

This Week in Softball: Introducing ERAA's New Director of Player and Coach Development

Introducing ERAA's New Director of Player and Coach Development

Eric Heflin

ERAA welcome's Eric Heflin as Director of Player and Coach Development.

Eric has 30 years of coaching experience, including:

• Football, baseball, and especially fastpitch softball
• Coach Minnesota Irish Club Softball program
• Assistant Coach, Rosemont High School Softball
• Head Coach, Dakota Community Technical College Softball
• Director and Head Coach, Minnesota Wolves Club Softball program

Eric's Coaching Philosophy

My coaching philosophy is very simple; help young women to develop the skills they need to become successful in softball and in life. It is important that the program be about the girls, not the coach, and that we teach strong fundamentals.  If we are successful building the character of these women, then success will happen on the field.  A winning program is the result of hard work and strong confident players.  The legacy that we create should be something that is special in the lives of these young ladies so that they want the same for their daughters.  I would like this opportunity to bring sport back to where teaching the right values for life after sports is as important as being successful on the field.

View upcoming softball clinics by Eric Heflin.  Share your comments.  

Training Tidbit: Fielding Flyballs

ERAA Youth Softball Night 
Be sure to join the fun on Monday, May 2 at 4:15 p.m. Read more details about this event. 

Stay informed about Woodbury field closures.

Support ERAA Softball by purchasing Twins Tickets! Help us reach our goal of selling 300 tickets. Any team that sells 20 or more tickets wins an ice cream party. Orders and payment are due by April 30. Download ticket order form from the ERAA website. 

Social Savvy

For those that may be getting started with social media tools, such as Facebook, here’s a few quick tips for getting started.

Facebook

Facebook is a platform for users to quickly connect with friends and family. Users create their own pages based on personal preferences, add others to their network and share events, pictures, videos, or experiences. Depending on the setup, users are notified when someone in their network updates their page or status. 

Watch a video to learn how to set up a personal Facebook page

Learn how to use your Facebook page 

Be sure to search for East Ridge Athletic Association Softball in Facebook and click the Like button on the top, right corner of the page. This will add updates from ERAA Softball to your Facebook Newsfeed - an easy way to keep informed about ERAA Softball events! Watch for some fun Facebook contests from ERAA in the near future!    

Win An Ice Cream Party For Your Team!

Ice Cream, Ice Cream, we all scream for Ice Cream!

Each ERAA traveling and rec softball team that gets credit for 20 or more Twins tickets sold will get an ice cream party!!

 

Visit our website for ticket order form and more details about the game!

We appreciate your support of this ERAA Fastpitch Softball fundraising event.

The ERAA Fastpitch Softball Season Kick-Off Game and Picnic is on Monday, May 2!

It just wouldn't be the same without you, so we hope you can make it!

Show your support for the Varsity Softball Team by wearing your softball jersey to school on May 2.

Get more details

Fastpitch Partner Hitting Lessons with Eric Heflin

Fastpitch Partner Hitting Lessons

2 players for 8 sessions on arranged schedule

U10-U18 Players
$200.00 per player

Need your own bat

Register online or:
contact Eric Heflin at 651-338-9262
or wolves@frontier.com