A message from our 2025 IMBA President

Parents, Guardians & Players:

My name is Evan Emerson and I am the new President of the Innisfail Minor Ball Association (IMBA). 

This newsletter is a way for the Board to communicate to our Membership the exciting things we have on the go, and make sure we are all ready to rock when the snow disappears.

What does the IMBA Offer?

IMBA is proud to offer fun ball options for ALL ages and skill levels, girls and boys. Here is a summary of our programs:

Rally Cap (U7) / Rookie (U9) - Our Rally Cap and Rookie programs are for ALL of our players aged 9 and under. These are our introductory programs to ball, and they run in May and June.  All of our players registered in Rally Cap and Rookie will receive 3 “Intro to Ball” sessions at The Dome - Red Deer. 

New in 2025 - U9 A.  This team for U9 players looking for a higher level of competition, and team aspect similar to the higher levels.  There will be weekday and weekend play and some travel.  The season will run in May and June, and possibly into early July depending on the team interest.  This team may have a tryout depending on numbers.

Baseball (U11/U13/U15/U18) … IMBA offers 2 baseball programs … AA and Recreational.  The AA teams will practice a couple of times during the week, and play every other weekend.  Their season runs from May 01 to the end of July.  The Recreational teams will play games during the week.  Their season runs from May 01 to the end of June.

Baseball (U22 AA) … In 2023, IMBA relaunched our U22 AA (Junior) team.  Their season runs from May first to the end of July.

Softball (U11/U13/U15/U17/U19) … IMBA offers 2 softball programs: 
Competitive - “B” level and Recreational - “C” level. 
The Competitive teams will practice and play 2 to 4 times a week.  Their season runs from May 01 to mid-July. 
The Recreational teams will play twice a week.  Their season runs from May 01 to the end of June. 

Innisfail hosts a big Softball Tournament each year that our teams attend, plus most teams will attend one or two travel tournaments at their discretion.

Registration / Deadlines 

REGISTRATION for ALL TEAMS is OPEN NOW. Registration is done through the IMBA website.  www.innisfailminorball.com

The deadline for registration for our Competitive Baseball and Softball teams is FEB 28 2025. This will allow time for team tryouts (if necessary) and team workouts to get ready for the season. These will begin on MAR 04 2025 and will be held at The Dome in Red Deer.

The deadline for registration for our Rally Cap, Rookie, and Recreational teams will be APR 15 2025. There will be pre-season dry land workouts for these groups as well.

We note some of these programs are capped in numbers and do fill up so we encourage you to get your player registered as soon as possible.

AA Baseball / Competitive Softball:           DEADLINE FEB 28 2025

Rec Baseball / Rec Softball:                        DEADLINE APR 15 2025

Coach / Asst Coach / Manager Applications

Our teams do not happen without our great volunteers stepping up to run them. We are asking anyone interested in coaching, or helping coach our AA Baseball or Competitive Softball teams to submit their application ASAP and by FEB 20 2025 at the latest.

Tryouts (if needed) or workouts for the Competitive teams are scheduled to begin in The Dome on MAR 04 2025, so we need our Coaches in place by that time.

We are also accepting applications for ANYONE who wants to coach, help coach, or manage our A/Community Baseball and Softball teams this upcoming season.  We would like to have those applications by APR 15 2025.

The Coach Application Form is on the IMBA website or can be found by clicking the following link  http://www.innisfailminorball.com/content/forms

AA Baseball / Competitive Softball deadline:           FEB 20 2025

Rec Baseball / Rec Softball deadline:                        APR 15 2025

IMBA Apparel

TBS in Red Deer is the official supplier of all IMBA apparel.  Each Spring, we will post a link to shop for apparel on our IMBA website filled with all of your Innisfail Hawks gear. They will run a couple of cut-off dates to these shop links so the batches of orders can be filled and ready in a timely manner.

Our 2025 IMBA Hawks Apparel Store will be up and running on the IMBA website soon, so go there and place your order at your earliest convenience.

Practices/Coach Development - The Dome

IMBA will again be working with The Dome in Red Deer to assist our Players and Coaches in their development.  All IMBA teams will have at least one practice in The Dome this year run by one of their Baseball or Softball professionals.  We will also be providing additional training for our Coaches this year through The Dome.

ICFEA Update

The Innisfail Community Facility Enhancement Association (ICFEA) is a group of local, community-minded volunteers whose mandate is to help facilitate capital projects for the betterment of our town and surrounding area.

Congratulations to the ICFEA.  Through lots of hard work and tremendous support, their Diamond 7 project was completed and celebrated its grand opening in June 2024. 

The ICFEA was also the 2024 recipient of the Wally A. Footz Builders Award as awarded by Baseball Alberta. This is a massive boost to our community. 

Umpires 

Our games don’t happen without our Umpires!  IMBA is always in need of umpires, all levels, and all ages. We will let you know about upcoming Umpire courses as they come available.

If you have any questions on how to become an Umpire, or would like to be added to our Umpire list, please contact the following:

• Baseball - Adam Rutherford      403 304 9051

• Softball - Jeff Mydland              403 506 4313

Thank You to our retiring Board Members

Thank you to Murray Reay, Brandy Mydland, Tara Halford and Jenn Wood, IMBA volunteers who are retiring from the Board this year.  We appreciate all that you have done for the IMBA, and you will be missed! 

Questions?

Baseball:        Evan Emerson            President - IMBA                               403 396 3826

Softball:         Clayton Seguin           Vice President - IMBA                       587 447 7277

We look forward to an excellent upcoming 2025 season!