--By Dan Plouffe

The first snowfall may not bring visions of green grass and the sounds of summer for most, but for University of Ottawa Gee-Gees softball coaches Scott Searle and Jenny Allen, the start of winter means the start of training for their new under-18 women's team.

A parent information meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, Nov. 29 in room 243 of the U of O's Lamoureux Building to find local players interested in competing in 6-7 tournaments next summer on top of regular Canada's Capital Fastpitch League games.

"Athletes get many advantages through sport and we wanted to foster an environment for high-performance softball players to play in Ottawa," Searle explains in an e-mail to SportsOttawa.com. "Having Jenny work with the athletes is a huge bonus as she is clearly a role model for fitness and community involvement.  She is one of the best players ever to play softball in Ottawa and the athletes will be lucky to work with her."

Allen's playing resume is an extensive one, with numerous provincial, Eastern Canadian and national championship medals and titles, while she's recently joined the coaching staff of her former university team.

The team will be hosting open gym nights from January to March for any interested athletes, who will be charged a minimal amount to cover the cost of facility rental. The Off-season training will focus on developing base skills technical skills, mental training, cardiovascular levels, strength for softball (core strength, legs, forearm muscles), technical hitting skills, speed, agility, quickness, and softball specific anaerobic conditioning, Searle highlights.

"We will be in tough our first year, but we strongly value the principles of long-term athelte development and look to make significant improvements in the atheltes technical skills and fitness levels over the next two years," adds Searle, a teacher at St. Peter Catholic High School who's coached Orleans Rebels teams for many years. "As a high school teacher I believe strongly in the value of education, and am convinved that sports presents a vehicle where young people can learn a great deal about themselves and others."

Team tryouts will be held outdoors in the spring. Once the team is selected, practice locations will be picked based on the geography of the athletes on the team, with an eye on varying practice locations throughout the season to try to equalize travel time for athletes.

"Our goal with this flexibility is to allow athletes from outside the Ottawa area to play on the team," Searle explains.

E-mail scottsearle@rogers.com for more information.


Jenny Allen is one of the top athletes ever to play in the Ottawa Area. She is the recipient of several prestigious awards for her efforts including the Ottawa Sports Award “Softball player of the year” in 2009, as well as an Outstanding Youth Award in 2007 when she was only 18 years old. Jenny played most of her softball career with the Orleans Rebels, leading them to Provincial and Eastern Canadian Championships in 2005. Jenny was named the MVP of the tournament in 2005 as she drove in all 3 of her teams runs in the final game. In a strange twist, she changed teams in 2006 and holds the unique distinction of leading 2 separate teams to 3 Eastern Canadian Championships in a row between 2004 and 2006. She played with the Kars Aces when they won in 2004 and in 2006. She also led the Orleans Seniors to a National Bronze medal in 2009. Most recently she has played with the Pickering Heat where she got a Silver Medal at the Nationals in 2010.  Jenny is also a personal trainer and currently works at Algonquin College
 
Scott Searle has been the Head Coach of the UOttawa Women's team since 2007, is an instructor for the PWSA's "Colour your Dream" Long-Term Athlete Development Program, as well as frequent Guest Coach for the the Mens Team Ontario program. A graduate of the National Coaching Institute with a degree in High Performance Coaching Studies (Level 4/5), Searle also holds a degree from the University of Ottawa in Honours History, as well as a Masters in Science in Teaching from the State University of New York at Potsdam.