In February, Slo-Pitch Ontario and Slo-Pitch National made a game changing announcement of our plans to enhance our working agreement starting this season with a view to providing more consistency and better communication between our programs, and affirming our mutual commitment to the game many of us have devoted a great deal of time and effort to.
You'd be hard pressed to find many players or teams that have not, at some point, witnessed or experienced players or teams who chose to sandbag, cheat or abuse the rules of the game. We have always wondered why - for an award, or accolades, or bragging rights? The game is the game no matter where it is played, and it should be clear to everyone that if you are rated a higher classification in one program, you would be the same in another.
When you choose to participate in a lower division by misrepresenting your ranking, you are not only damaging the game, but damaging the integrity of the communities you represent, and your own credibility as an individual player, as well as that of the teammates you are playing with.
Both SPO and SPN are committed to making the opportunities to compete fair and consistent across our programs by improving the overall team ranking system and eliminating the inconsistencies. We cannot achieve this if there are those who will continue to try to gain an unfair advantage by being dishonest. After a review of the guidelines and rules regarding ratings and classifications in both programs for players and teams, we have agreed to implement revised Classification Criteria and Ontario Team Ranking Guidelines.
