The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

THERE is expected to be some significant changes when the New Providence Softball Association kicks off its 2015 season in the Banker’s Field at the Baillou Hills Sporting Complex Friday night.

According to league president Godfrey ‘Gully’ Burnside, with six teams in the men’s and women’s division, players have been moving around which should make for an interesting season.

The league is scheduled to kick off at 7pm Friday with the defending ladies’ champions Sigma Wildcats playing the Johnson’s Lady Truckers, formerly the Sigma Brackettes, last year’s runners-up. That will be followed by the official opening ceremony when the Wildcats and the men’s champions Arnette Sporting Lounge Hitmen will receive their championship rings from last year.

That will be followed by the men’s feature contest between the Hitmen, now campaigning as the Ira Dez Hitmen, who will play last year’s runners-up Commando Security Truckers, formerly the Sting Truckers, at 9 pm.

This year, the six teams playing in the ladies’ division are the Wildcats, the Truckers, the Black Scorpions, the College of the Bahamas Lady Caribs, the Bommer G Operators and the Lady Stingers. Six teams will also make up the men’s division, including the Hitmen, Truckers, BTC Elite Warriors, Chances Mighty Mitts, the newly formed Sports Centre Dorsey Boys and the JMEL Panthers.

Burnside said during the course of the off season, there were a number of player movements and, if that’s any indication, the league should be very competitive.

“We have two new teams in the men’s division and they are bringing some former players back in the league and they are getting some of the players from some of the teams in the league from last year,” Burnside said.

“On the ladies’ side, we no longer have the Electro Telecom Lady Hitters, but the Lady Stingers is a new team and they are going to have some players who played on previous teams playing with them this year.”

As for exactly who will be playing with who, Burnside said the fans will have to wait and see because even though their names appear on the rosters, it’s still too early to say until they actually play on those teams. Regardless of who’s playing with who, Burnside said they are looking forward to an exciting showdown in both divisions.

With the Lady Hitters dissolved, some of the players have moved to the Lady Stingers and will be joined by some of the former players of the defunct Proper Care Pool Lady Sharks, who played last year with the Wildcats.

Despite losing some of their players, Wildcats’ manager Anthony Bullard said they still have the nucleus of the team, so they expect to be a force to reckon with again this year.

“We have the majority of the team back,” Bullard said. “We have a couple new girls who joined us, so we will be very competitive because we still have (ace) Mary (Sweeting) and the other veterans, who carried the team over the years. They are the players who we usually count on.

“The help we got from the new girls last year was a big help, but we prepared ourselves just in case this happens when they left to go join a new team. They were just a plus for us last year. Right now we are getting our team together so we can give the fans another show because we are the defending champions.”

Darren Stevens, manager of the Hitmen, was unavailable for comments up to press time last night.