Mixed Softball Germany on the Road to Europe
Below is a Guest Blog from Mike Schmidt, the initiator of the RFL- the Ruhr Fun League, which is located in NRW, the most populous state in Germany. The teams of this league play co-ed fastpitch softball along with other leagues in Germany with at least 100 inofficial teams.
Kai Lodi who started the Champions League about 8 Years ago, which ist the inofficial Championship Tournament of all these Leagues, came up with the idea to get a German national team started.
Here is what Mike has to say about it:
Mixed/Coed Softball in Germany
An interesting development of softball beyond a mere past time sport has taken place in Germany. A little over ten years ago fun teams have started to organize inofficial leagues to play mixed/coed softball. This independent development took place parallel to the official baseball and softball leagues of the German Base- and Softball Federation (DBSV) and is therefore not officially linked to the DBSV.
In the meantime over 100 Teams across Germany play in independent, regional leagues softball. In 2005 the regional champions met for a national tournement termed the “Champions League” to determine the German national champion in mixed/coed fast pitch softball. This national championship has since been an annual event.
An Effort to reach the European platform
Our efforts strive to place a national coed, slow pitch softball team in the European Finals 2011. For this purpose we need a national application granted by the DBSV.
In order to raise attention, promote our cause and to reach our goal of sending a national team to Dupnitsa (Bulgaria) we created a fan page at Facebook titled: “Our road to Europe”
We hope to generate a group of at least 1000 fans and friends for our Facebook mascott “Frei z Softball” by September 30th 2010.
It is long overdue to open the beautiful game of softball beyond the official womens fast pitch league in Europes second most populous country.
