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2016 Baseball/Softball Sourcebook 10 www.sportseventsmagazine.com ASA/USA SOFTBALL PROMOTES EDUCATION & OUTREACH ASA/USA Softball currently fields teams with more than 2.5 million athlete mem- bers and is promoting the sport as much as possible to help increase that number. Specifically, the organization's leaders are helping its local associations with social media outreach by providing workshops and conference calls to edu- cate them about using social media to promote the game. "We want to help our local associations stay current with the trends, so we're helping them with Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts," Miller said. ASA/USA Softball is also improving upon its game for current players. High- performance bats are now allowed for use in the masters/senior divisions. New divisions of play have also been added to the offerings. Last year, a new division called 18 and older was added to women's fast pitch, which is an attempt by the organization to attract more col- lege-age players to play during the sum- mer months. This year, a new division of play was added to the men's slow pitch side called 21 and under. "With the new men's division, we are trying to get more young people playing within this age cat- egory instead of playing with the older ages," Miller said. illions of kids and adults around the world are playing softball, and for many reasons. No matter age or gender, the sport provides an opportunity for physi- cal activity in a fun and social atmosphere, as well as many learning opportuni- ties. "There are many life lessons that are taught around the game of softball," said ASA/USA Softball Director of Membership John Miller. "It is a team game where all nine players must work together toward a common goal." M BY PAIGE TOWNLEY Softball: A Sport For Any Age Photos by Jack Eberhart