It has worked well for her cousin in London for many years and Kristin Jamieson is hoping it can work for the Hillsboro High School Student Council, too. It is a wiffle ball tournament the council plans to host June 25 at Liberty Park in Hillsboro.
“We were looking for a fundraiser back in the fall for the freshman and sophomore classes because we need to raise money for the junior senior prom,” Jamieson, the HHS freshman class treasurer and tournament director, said. “The London tournament had just ended and I just had a spark in head and said, ‘Why don’t we have a wiffle ball tournament?’ Everyone said that would be fun.”
Teams will consist of four to six players and there will be two divisions – ages 7-13 and ages 14 and above. Four defenders play the field at any given time, but all six players can be in the batting order. The cost is $50 per team for the youth division and $100 per team for the adult division. Teams that register after June 18 have to pay an additional $20 fee.
Jamieson said her goal is for the whole community to get behind the tournament so it can become an annual event.
“We want to the tournament to appeal to all ages, kind of like the Amazing Race my dad started a couple years ago,” Jamieson said. “The Amazing Race brought people together for a day of fun and that’s what we want to do with this tournament. We want people to bring their tents and coolers and just go out there and have a lot of fun all day.”
The games will be played on the soccer fields at Liberty Park and Jamieson said the student council is checking on other locations in the park in case more space is needed. She said they’re hoping for 30 teams the first year and that it grows from there.
The London Wiffleball Tournament started in 1999 and claims to be the largest slow-pitch wiffleball tournament in the world. It has drawn 80-plus teams in one year, according to Jamieson. Its organizer, Brian Wheeler, is Jamieson’s cousin.
Pitching is underhand and other rules can be found on the Hillsboro High School website at www.hcs-k12.org. Details can also be found on Facebook at Hillsboro Wiffle Ball Touranment or Twitter or Instagram at hhswiffleball.
In addition to the tournament, Jamieson there will be home run derby and longest home run contests that people can enter as many times as they like for $5 each entry. There will also be T-shirts and concessions for sale.
The student council is looking for tournament sponsors. A “bronze” sponsor for $100 gets a field sponsor sign or its name on the T-shirts, a “silver” sponsor for $350 gets a field sponsor sign and a T-shirt advertisement, and a “gold” sponsor for $500 gets a field sponsor sign, T-shirt advertisement, and one free team entry fee.
There is a June 26 rain date.
For more information call Jamieson at 937-763-7011 or email [email protected].
“I can’t explain how much fun I think this will be,” Jamieson said. “I don’t think we have anything like this around Hillsboro so we hope it creates a little diversity, which will be good.”
Reach Jeff Gilliland at 937-402-2522 or on Twitter @13gillilandj.
