Vancouver Grey Sox
September 23, 2009
Vancouver, BC
Vancouver, B.C.
We regret to advise that the Vancouver Grey Sox Senior Men's Fastpitch Club is ceasing operations. It has become too costly to run an open level team on the West Coast. A number of factors have led to our decision to wind up the team, but the ISC's efforts to limit roster movement by imposition of the PRAWN rule is not one of them. In fact, we applaud the ISC for its recent efforts to regulate rosters of ISC teams and assist withcontrolling the costs of fielding a competitive club at this level.
A previous version of the Grey Sox operated for a few years in the mid 1990’s and the team was resurrected in 2000 by Doug Challoner and the South Hill Sports Association. In 2000 and 2001 the Grey Sox played in the BC Premier League and competed at the Senior B level, with a roster of young players who had graduated from BC junior teams. In 2002 the Grey Sox moved up to the Open level. Although we have always had a majority of BC- based players, in recent years we added out of province players in an effort to stay competitive with the upper echelon teams. However, we are proud to have continued to contribute to the local fastpitch community by co-hosting the Vancouver Challenge tournament every year, helping run youth clinics, and supporting all other Open level teams in our region. In 8 years as an Open level teamthe Grey Sox played in 7 Canadian Championships and 5 ISC World Tournaments.Our crowning achievement on the field was our Canadian Championship win in Newfoundland in 2007. At the Canadians we were also the silver medalists in 2004 and bronze medalists in2003. At the ISC World Tournament we consistently placed in the top 12 and were8th many times, but could not crack the top 6. We won several Vancouver Challenge Tournaments in front of large hometown crowds, including in 2008 and 2009. We enjoyed our involvement in the senior men’s fastpitch community in North America for the last decade and we are saddened that the team is coming to an end. We will miss the game at this level and are hopeful that it will be rejuvenated on the West Coast overtime, as the economics change.
We would like to thank the many volunteers of the South Hill Sports Association, the ISC, Softball Canadaand Softball BC for their contributions to the game.Special thanks as well to all of our coaches, players, Directors, Boosters,corporate contributors, wives and children, the Media and of course the fans of the Vancouver Grey Sox, for your support.
We wish all of you the best of luck in the seasons ahead.
Sincerely,
Larry Kancs, Conrad Margolis and John Stuart on behalf of the Vancouver Grey Sox Senior Men’s Fastpitch Club
