Minor baseball in Wilmot celebrates continued growth of girls program

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The Wilmot Softball Association recently held its award banquet where many players, fans and even umpires took home some hardware. Arianna Baetz (left) from the U13 local league team was awarded the Penny Roth Memorial Award for sportsmanlike play and ability. Mya Bannerman from the U13 girls rep team was presented with the Murray Wagler Memorial Award for the most improved player. Contributed photos

By Lee Griffi

The Wilmot Softball Association has nine seasons under its belt after New Hamburg and Baden amalgamated and, according to its outgoing president, has seen positive growth in its girls’ system.

For the 2026 season, the Wilmot Softball Association registered a total of 612 players, consisting of 190 girls and 378 boys across all divisions. Overall registration reflects an eight per-cent increase from 2025. The girls program continues to show positive growth, up 34 per cent since 2022, while total registration has increased 31 per cent in the same period.

“One of the main reasons we amalgamated was both centres were struggling to put together girls teams,” said outgoing association president Ryan Roth. “It was not unusual at many age levels where one would have seven girls sign up and the other five. We were shuffling kids back and forth just to give them a chance to play.”

The year before the merger, the boys played separate as Baden and New Hamburg, but all girls teams were merged playing under the Wilmot banner.

“This wasn’t the only reason we did it, but it was one of motivations behind it. We were just hoping to have a team at each age level so the girls had a chance to play,” Roth said.

The association has been proactive in not only keeping the number of female players up but also looking to expand it through community outreach.

“We have some executive members who run open houses in schools during the offseason in school gyms that is centred on young girls, trying to get them out and just have some fun. Our efforts have paid off as we are seeing our numbers go up faster than the boys,” Roth said.

The Wilmot Softball Association has girls teams all the way up to the U21 age group and some ages have multiple teams.

“We have a few teams playing at a more competitive level but we also have girls playing at the recreational level. It’s exciting to see two, sometimes even three teams in one age group. When we started this, we were hoping to get even one team for each age level,” added Roth.

Along with growth comes challenges, however, as the association had some struggles finding diamond time along with umpires. Roth said there are 10 diamonds available to be used in Wilmot, but the challenge is finding time during the week in the summer.

“People don’t necessarily want to be at the ball park every weekend. We will have a few tournaments, but people want to go to the cottage or the beach. We are using all the diamond time that is available and we continue to brainstorm to find more time during the week,” Roth said.

He added they are trying to recruit more umpires and are encouraging junior umpires to stick with it as they age.

“A big part of that is trying to encourage respect for our umpires,” Roth said. “With any minor sport, there is the challenge of negativity towards officials. I was involved with minor hockey for years and I saw it all the time from parents and coaches and ball is no different. Umpires might make mistakes but being disrespectful and rude is simply dragging people away from it. There’s not a lot of people who want to step up and umpire.”

Roth added minor ball continues to appreciate the strong partnerships it has with community businesses and organizations.

“We’d like to once again thank all of our sponsors and again recognize the New Hamburg Optimist Club for their assistance at many of our tournaments. We would also like to thank the Township of Wilmot for their investment in the batting cages in New Hamburg and Baden, something that will be used by the youth of this township for many years to come.”

A total of 58 teams were fielded this season, including 46 local league teams and 12 competitive teams. The organization hosted the second annual Wilmot Spring Showcase, adding a U11 division. Over 40 teams from Ontario and Quebec participated in five divisions over two weekends.

“It was a very successful event, with many compliments on the event from many visitors and participants,” said Roth. “We again hosted a few provincial events, beginning with 14 teams coming to for the OASA U15 Eliminations from July 3-5. From July 17-19, we welcomed teams entered into the Under 15 Boys and Girls ORSA Championships. The following weekend, we hosted the ORSA Under 17 Boys Championship. Finally, in late October, we hosted teams from Nova Scotia, Quebec and Ontario in the Under 17 Eastern Canadian Championship.”