BASEBALL - Baseball fanatic on a mission

IF you hear about baseball you think of the good ol' US of A. But the sport is gaining a foothold in Northland and those responsible are planning to keep promoting the game at least until the region produces its first national champion side.
"It isn't seen as a Kiwi sport yet and that's why we want to develop the sport among the young kids here," Whangarei organiser Miguel Abascal said.
Last year Auckland Little League club Bayside Westhaven were crowned New Zealand champions and for their efforts won a trip to the Asia-Pacific championships in Hong Kong.
Abascal is on something of a mission, with plans to win the national title with a Northland side before 2011, and then go on to win the Asia-Pacific title - something no New Zealand team has ever done before.
"Last year I started with some pretty promising seven-year-olds and in 2011 they'll be 12 - little league is a under-12 competition - so I'm hoping they'll be ready to be the champions then," he said.
Shortly after Abascal arrived in Whangarei more than a year ago, he began work establishing baseball in the area.
Such is his enthusiasm for baseball that he was discussing his plans for the sport here with the director of New Zealand Baseball just hours after he arrived.
He and his fellow baseball enthusiasts got to work but were hampered in their first year by only having one ground available to them.
There were four Whangarei teams in the league - with another team participating from Russell - but this year Abascal is expecting as many as 20 teams to be involved.
This year Whangarei District Council has allocated the league more space and the organisation has applied for grants to fund the expansion.
Abascal, who is also a minister at the Whangarei Christian Fellowship, wants the game to flourish in New Zealand.
In the league's first year of operating, they trained 13 coaches.
"That's why we can contemplate the kind of expansion we're planning this year, it's important that it's not all on my shoulders and that the league doesn't depend on me," he said.
Abascal and one of his coaches are also taking the game into seven schools as a part of the physical education curriculum, which will further help them to acquaint people to the game.
The first year the girls played in the same competition as the boys and although Abascal said it worked well enough the future of the sport may be to start a girls' softball competition.
"We're even looking to start a girls' softball league, so they can compete in the girls' Little League competition in Hong Kong every year."
There are three levels of competition: T-ball, minors (8-10 years old) and majors (10-12).
Registration for Little League Baseball is at the Northland Baseball headquarters - which just happens to be at the Whangarei Christian Fellowship - on the corner of Nixon and Princess Streets in Kensington.