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About the VWMSA

League History and Objectives "A League of Their Own"

In the early 1990's a few parents (notably Barry Holden and Brian Boyko) decided it was time that the girls had "A league of their own". The Vancouver Westside Minor Softball Association was incorporated as a society under the Societies Act of British Columbia in 1993, and the VWMSA joined Softball BC, and was in turn affiliated with Softball Canada at that time.

From the start, the Association has had tremendous support from parent volunteers who want to provide an opportunity for their children to play the great sport of softball in our neighbourhoods.

When the VWMSA joined Softball BC in 1993 there were about 850 players registered with about 60 teams. These teams played mainly in the house division, with gradual but steadily increasing success at the competitive "rep" level. The first Wildcats rep teams played in the '94 season, and the rep program has never looked back. In 1999 our house division had roughly 1200 players registered. In 2009 our registration was down to roughly 400 because we have been very low profile in the last few years, but efforts are under way to rebuild to at least 600 players so we can have robust house programs up to Midget (18 years old).

All of us involved in the Association try to keep in mind, at all times, that everything we do is for the best interests of our players. Back To Top

Fair Play Philosophy

We encourage all of our players, coaches, managers, parents (and everyone else involved in the sport) to keep in mind that in the most important sense, we are all on the same team.

This applies to competitions inside our own organization, and competitions with others either at tournaments, playoffs with other associations, provincial championships or interlocking games in the rep program.

The Fair Play Philosophy emphasizes the following:

respecting the rules of the game respecting officials and accepting their decisions respecting the opponent providing similarity situated participants with equal opportunities maintaining dignity under all circumstances provide players with adequate coaching at all levels of play

There are many occasions in our sport when it is easy to keep in mind our own interests, or those of our team, or in fact our association. It is understandable that we all approach these occasions from our own particular perspective. The Fair Play Philosophy reminds us that without the participation of others, including the other teams we play against, both inside our Association and in other associations, we would not have a sport at all.

Back To Top House or "C" Division  Softball House or C softball is the core of our program.  Our house division plays a schedule with regular season games against teams in the VWMSA and/or some selected interlock with neighboring Associations only, and this only at the older divisions. At the end of the regular season, playoffs are held within our house teams, and the winners then earn the right to go on to compete at the District  playoffs leading to Provincial Championships. Our house teams play during the year according to rules which we adopt as an association. These rules are designed to ensure that the house level of play is mainly recreational and developmental, but when teams proceed to the Provincials, our teams play by Softball BC rules, which are in some cases different than our house rules. Teams in the house level are not created by a selection or try-out process, but rather tend to be selected in the early years by school or geography, and then later based on continuity of teams/coaches.