FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 17th, 2012

Softball Canada Names Junior Men's National Team Assistant Coaches

(Ottawa, ON) Softball Canada is pleased to announce that two coaches have been added to the Junior Men's National Team Coaching Pool. Jim Jones (Leduc, AB) and George Ryder (Port Dover, ON) will serve as assistant coaches to Head Coach Tom Doucette (Middle Musquodoboit, NS) at the helm of the Canadian Junior Men's softball team leading up to the ISF Junior Men's World Championship, which will take place from November 1-10, 2012 in Argentina.

Jim Jones was an assistant coach with the Junior Men's National Team that won a silver medal at the 2008 ISF Junior Men's World Championships in Whitehorse, Yukon. He is a former Men's National Team player who was inducted to the Softball Canada Hall of Fame as an athlete in 2004, and was also as a member of the gold-medal winning 1983 Pan American Games Team.

George Ryder joins the coaching staff after leading Team Ontario to a gold medal at the 2009 U19 International Men's Softball Championship, which was held in Charlottetown, PEI. A fully certified Level III coach with 25 years of experience as a pitcher, he will also coach Team Ontario at the 2013 U21 International Men's Fastpitch International Championship.

'We are pleased to add Jim and George as Junior Men's National Team assistant coaches for 2012' said Harvey Stevenson, Softball Canada's National Teams Operations Manager. 'Both have a tremendous wealth of experience and will be great additions to our staff which already includes Doug Chase (Port Alberni, BC) and Head Coach Tom Doucette.'

The Junior Men's National Team will hold a selection camp following the U18 and U21 Men's Canadian Championships in August (dates and location to be determined), and the selected team will later compete at the 2012 ISF Junior Men's World Championship from November 1-10, 2012 in Parana, Argentina.

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For more information, please contact:

Gilles LeBlanc
Manager - Marketing and Communications
Softball Canada
(613) 523-3386 x. 3105
gleblanc@softball.ca