“Rivershark Twins”

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With the costs of sponsorships escalating and the ability toretain or entice premier players more difficult, two of the games most respected sponsorship teams have joined forces to keep a major fastball entity alive in Ontario .

Over the weekend the Kitchener management team and their primary sponsor Jim Hallman, and Bob Nydick long time major sponsor of the Riversharks club met in Kitchener. After hours of discussion it became clear that the principles and professionalism that both the Twins and Rivershark teams have been built on could only continue if there was a sponsorship partnering opportunity for each club. Both Hallman and Nydick are committed to make the Rivershark-Twins a continuation of their personal commitment to excellence.

“ It is very important to me to keep a major fastball team alive in the Kitchener – Waterloo area, “said Hallman, “ I can no longer do that on my own.” The Twins organization celebrated their 40th anniversary in 2007 and are widely regarded as Canada’s longest continually operating major men’s fastball team.

“ The opportunity to keep the Rivershark name alive is important to me,” said Nydick, “ but I am more excited about the lineup we can put together by partnering up with the Twins organization. I think our chemistry is going to be tremendous and that alone will translate to success in its own right.”

The roster has yet to be finalized and with a limit of 6 PRAWNS there are obviously going to be players gone from both 2007 clubs.“ It is more important to talk to the players who we cannot keep right now than it is to start announcing a new lineup,” said Nydick. “ We have all made some great friendships through this game, the last thing we want to do is to lose one of those.”

All indications are that there will be a very balanced split of both Twins and Rivershark personnel suiting up in the revamped lineup. While the roster is not complete as of now, Nydick did say the following players have made their commitment to the Kitchener team :

Todd Martin
Don Scott
Frank Cox
Patrick Shannon
Blair Ezekiel
Jody Eidt
Ian Fehrman
Ryan Wolfe
Jeff Ellsworth
Steve Mullaley
Derek Shackelton
Evan Boyd
Dan Loney
Dave Bailey

The remaining roster is expected to be finalized in the very near future. The coaching team sees ISC Hall of Fame managers Denny Bruckert and Larry Lynch joining Nydick, while former Twin head coach Doug Eidt is still making his decision on the future. Bruckert will fill the field managers position. While there are a number of details to be worked out yet the Kitchener based team will be looking to build on the experience and leadership of its veteran coaching staff to mould this club into something special for Ontario fans.

“ Denny and I have a long history of matching wits across the chalk lines” said Lynch,“ we have already talked philosophy and strategy for this group and we are absolutely on the same page.” Bruckert echoed Lynch’s feelings, “ Naturally we will have some work to get to know all the players but as far as working together we will talk lineups and strategies as a coaching team and let the players do the work on the field. There is a great deal of respect amongst the coaches, we areconfident this will spill over to each and every player on our ballclub.”

Twins spokesman Dave Bailey has been a key to keeping the local entity alive over the past 4 years and has been at the center of negotiations over the past week. “ When we had the sponsorship conversation with Jim Hallman prior to the World Tournament we knew there would be significant changes to our team make up in 2008. I don’t think anyone would have believed how fast things would fall into place, or for that matter how we would be able to keep it quiet. With the PRAWN limitations it meant some of my closest friends would not be able to be part of this team next year. The game will really break your heart sometimes.”

The Rivershark Twins will now focus on putting finishing touches on both a roster and schedule, “ We have sometime now to sit back and start the process, “ said a beaming Bob Nydick,“ I guess the season never does truly end.”

Larry Lynch
llynch9@rogers.com