The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS Senior Sports Reporter bstubbs@tribunemedia.net HAVING spent more than 40 years in the sport as either a player, coach, manager and administrator, Godfrey 'Gully' Burnside said the best way to continue his contribution is to serve again as president of the New Providence Softball Association. On Thursday at the Baillou Hills Sporting Complex, Burnside was elected as the new president of the fast-pitch softball league that has experienced its share of administrative woes in the past few years. He replaced Rommel 'Fish' Knowles, who opted not to seek re-election. "I had a number of young men who approached me and I gave it some consideration," said Burnside when asked why he decided to run again. "It wasn't a difficult task. I decided to come back and see if I can assist in the revitalization of the sport." As the new president, Burnside said the first goal of his administrative team will be to restore the accountability in the leadership of the sport, not just to the general public but also to the teams involved in the league. "We will meet with the outgoing executives and try to clear up all of the issues that are outstanding, being accountable to the executive board and the managers and coaches so that we make 2012 a year of fun," Burnside said. "We will try to make sure that when the fans come out to the ballpark, they can really enjoy themselves as they watch some exciting softball and hopefully we will end up restoring the level of accountability." Members of Burnside's administrative team elected are Marvin 'Tougie' Wood, first vice president, Vernie Curry, second vice president, Ken Wood Jr, third vice president, Andy Percentie, fourth vice president and Anthony Bullard, fifth vice president, Renee 'Sunshine' Davis, secretary general, assisted by Angelo Dillet, Jeff Henfield, treasurer, assisted by Erick Johnson and Arthur Johnson as public relations officer. "All things happen for the best. I wasn't a part of the election process. The elections went smoothly as far as I know and the persons elected, I'm real happy with," Burnside said. "I'm especially happy to see that we have several young people elected to be a part of the executive board. "What this means is that we can continue to groom them to eventually take over the association in years to come. We're not going to be around forever, so we need to be able to put it in the hands of the younger persons so that they can steer the organisation in the way that it should go." Burnside said once he meets with his team tonight, he will be delegating certain responsibilities for each of his executives to carry out which will allow them to get a feel for exactly what is required of them to help to push the association forward. Once they would have met with the outgoing executive team to help sort out the various challenges that they experienced over the past three years, Burnside said they will then meet with the teams and decide on a date for the start of the season. "I think everybody needs to know what is going on so that we can all be comfortable that the league is a transparent one again," Burnside said. "So we feel that as soon as we can do that because we know that there were a couple of court cases that we have to look at, we can move forward." For those who are concerned with the fact that there are players involved on the executive board, which caused some of the problems that existed in recent times, Burnside said it's his goal to minimize any of the bias by removing those executives from the decision making process that affects his or her team. "I'm not affiliated with any team and the treasurer is not affiliated with any team right now, so there are some executives that are impartial," Burnside said. "But I have no problem with managers, coaches and players being a part of the executive. I think we need their input at this level. But they will not have an input when it relates to any problem involving their team." Burnside is also currently working as the manager of the men's national softball team that is preparing to travel. "We're working on their conditioning right now doing some workout at Goodman's Bay," Burnside said. "There's no set date as yet for the tournament, but it seemed as if it will be around June or July. So this will be a good opportunity for us to start working together. "It will also be good for us because all of the leagues will be in operation by then and we will have players playing softball. So they will have the mindset that they can go right into the international tournament being ready by playing on a daily basis."