[av_one_third first min_height=“ vertical_alignment=“ space=“ custom_margin=“ margin=’0px‘ padding=’0px‘ border=“ border_color=“ radius=’0px‘ background_color=“ src=“ background_position=’top left‘ background_repeat=’no-repeat‘ animation=“][/av_one_third] [av_one_third min_height=“ vertical_alignment=“ space=“ custom_margin=“ margin=’0px‘ padding=’0px‘ border=“ border_color=“ radius=’0px‘ background_color=“ src=“ background_position=’top left‘ background_repeat=’no-repeat‘ animation=“] [av_heading tag=’h1′ padding=’10‘ heading=’Softball Clinic 2016 ‚ color=“ style=’blockquote modern-quote modern-centered‘ custom_font=“ size=’36‘ subheading_active=’subheading_below‘ subheading_size=’24‘ custom_class=“] Peachtree City, Georgia
8/10/2016 – 8/21/2016
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Freising Grizzlies Baseball & Softball Club

Founded in 1988, the Freising Grizzlies are one of the oldest German baseball and softball clubs and are located near Munich in the beautiful Bavarian Freising area. We offer a wide variety of youth programs, and participate in both senior men and women leagues as well as mixed softball groups. In addition to it’s sports focus, the club also maintains high standards in social responsibility, e.g. we have a team that plays a baseball variant for blind people.

As their top softball success the Grizzlies could clinch the senior women German Championship in 2004, however the team was discontinued as many players had to leave for work reasons or to focus on their family. That did not stop the Grizzlies though and with a newly formed cadet girls team we could win the 16U German championship three times in a row 2010, 2011, and 2012 and continued on to win the 19U German championships in 2014 and 2015. That team now forms the core of the new senior women team that has been playing in the highest German league again since the 2015 season.

The first US Clinic in 2014

In 2013 the team’s shortstop Chiara decided to spend a year at a high school in the US and joined the Pullias family. The family’s dad Mike, at the time supporting a high school’s varsity softball team as a coach, was originally being asked for a recommendation who could host Chiara. But when he saw the chance to build deeper relationships with Softball in Germany and support a motivated international player he convinced his family to go all-in and they took Chiara under their wings as a new family member.

For Chiara her time in the US turned out to be great, she made many new friends and could play with amazing players for the Mauldin high school varsity team. Her family back at home together with the Pullias family thought about whether there was any way for the whole Grizzlies softball team to also make a similar experience and the idea for a Grizzlies US Softball Clinic was born.

After a lot of fundraising on both sides of the atlantic and Mike pulling an incredible number of softball strings and getting support from many great coaches, the trip did finally happen in September 2014, the Grizzlies 19U team hit upstate South Carolina!

German Softball Team Hits Upstate
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Being back in Germany

After being back in Germany the team excelled dramatically. With a reinforced team spirit and many advances in their hitting mechanics, the Grizzlies went on to win the German 19U championships for the first time in Grizzlies club history. In the final game they could hold a strong Wesseling Vermins team to 11-1 runs and they did not lose a single game in the whole tournament.

2015 was the team’s first exposure to Germany’s highest league, Coach Mike even came over to Germany to help coach the team. The Grizzlies had some very good moments, they could for instance beat the later 2015 German champion, the Wesseling Vermins, in one game, but in general it became clear that there is still way to go to successfully compete on first league level.

The 2016 Clinic

With a new league structure in 2016, i.e. the separation into a northern and southern conference, the Grizzlies have very good chances to reach the playoffs this year. So what better plan could there be as another Softball Clinic in the US to prepare the team for the playoffs? And that is exactly what we are set out to do!

About Peachtree City, GA

The 2016 clinic will be held in the unique city of Peachtree City, Georgia about 20 minutes south of the city of Atlanta.  The city is a planned community established in 1959 with a population of approximately 40,000. It is home to neighborhoods, businesses, schools, shopping and recreation, all connected by over 90 miles of golf cart paths. This will be an excellent place to train and many within the city are already excited to host the Grizzlies during their stay.  For more information and a little video peek into what makes Peachtree City so special: About Peachtree City.

The 2016 budget

For the Clinic 2016 we will go with 16 players, 2 coaches and 3 chaperones, 21 persons in total. We calculated that we need $41,600 to fund the trip, all participants will pay for their airfare themselves (– $23,400) resulting in a fundraising goal of approximately $18,200. If we’d cut everything to the bare minimum and live on bread, pasta and water, we could also make a bare-bones trip happen with some $10,600 of funds raised. At the time we already have $3,888.39 in donations secured.
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Budget 2016

Players & coaches self funded
Self-funded
 $23,379.66
Funds already raised
US Transportation Services & facilities provided for free
 $1,811.00
US Events & food support
 $670.00
Street Life event
 $1,096.86
Distribution of flyers for Christina Stürmer concert
 $164.53
Field & facilities preparation$ 241,31
Fleamarket Luitpoldhalle Freising$ 548,43
Fleamarket Sauwiese Freising + Momox book selling$ 246,79
Lions Club STS concert$ 767,80
Fleamarket Luitpoldhalle Freising$ 767,80
Summary
Funds already raised
 $6,314.54
Remaining funds needed for barebones trip $4,307,48
Remaining funds needed for full US Clinic Plan
 $11,915.08
Additional funds available
none
[/av_textblock] [/av_two_third] [av_textblock size=’16‘ font_color=“ color=“] We deeply appreciate any help and support by additional sponsors who help us to make that dream come true again. We will be able to provide professional-quality photographs from the US Clinic and will support any media-relations projects for sponsors as best as possible – given that they fit with the practice plans.

If you have any questions please contact

Mike Pullias

Kerstin Steffen

Dirk Steffen

Thank you very much

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