BY DEAN GREENAWAY

The BVI Amateur Softball Association will elect a new executive body during its Annual General Meeting at the Sports Division conference room during a 5:30 p.m. meeting on October 30.

The elections comes exactly two months after the 2003 championship series ended and president Walwyn "GM" Brewley announced he would not seek reelection to the post he has held since 1981.

Brewley says he's hoping for a better turnout and that a good president is elected. As he leaves the sport, Brewley says the sport needs an infusion of new players. He suggests the reintroduction of the sort at the Primary and High Schools levels.

"If we can get that done, we'll have good talent feeding into the system once more," he said, noting that the sport also got away from the 'village concept' of playing softball. "When we had that, you had a greater rivalry in softball," Brewley noted.

"All the guys in the Blue Wings were from Baughers Bay. With the Roots all the players were from East End and East End actually had two teams. The Byrds were from Sea Cows Bay. These guys grew up together and played together. They were basically family," Brewley noted of the earlier teams. "That is was really held some teams together and playing better than if you had fellows scattered from all over the island. You never got that kind of gel when we got away from the village concept."

Brewley would like to see games begin on time but says the biggest challenge facing the sport is national pride. "Players see going to a tournament as going on a tour," Brewley says. "It's not about doing the best I can for my country."

Brewley said more double headers should be scheduled as well. "We need to play more games during the daytime. I know most of the ballplayers will say they don't want double headers, but the league needs to play more games. You play 12 to 15 games and the season is over. We played a lot more than that," Brewley said. "In those days, the ballplayers had more stamina and they were fitter and we played double headers also."