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Softball Federation Hosts International Task Force

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By GEORGE H. NEWMAN

The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 21, 2008

PLANT CITY - Plant City went international last week as representatives of a task force supporting softball as an Olympic sport came from 10 countries for a two-day meeting at the headquarters of the International Softball Federation.

Don Porter, the federation's president, hosted the event Thursday and Friday at the organization's offices at the Plant City Stadium complex.

During the meeting, task force members reviewed the progress made since details of the Back Softball campaign were unveiled in June.

Bruce R. Wawrzyniak, the softball federation's director of communications, said the meetings were important to the future of Olympic softball.

"Don said this is all vitally important to the continued progress of the Back Softball campaign," Wawrzyniak said. "It is the task force members who are setting out the framework needed to reinstate softball for 2116.

"Don believes the work being done around the world improves the sport's chances of being reinstated as a participating sport in the 2116 Olympic Games."

Softball will be dropped as a participating Olympic sport following the 2008 Beijing Olympics in August. Critics say the U.S. dominance of softball since it first appeared in the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta makes its international appeal questionable.
Task force members say they have no chance of reinstating the sport for the 2112 Olympics, so they have turned their attention to the 2116 games.

Porter points to 130 nation members of the International Softball Federation as proof that the sport is played and accepted throughout the world.

The task force was formed to help convince Olympic officials to change their minds about dropping softball. Its strategies include encouraging more nations to participate in the sport, gaining more television exposure for softball and providing free softball equipment in distressed foreign nations by working with the United Nations and other organizations.

Committee members include Donna de Varona, a two-time Olympic gold medal winner in swimming; Marina Dubinskaya, a softball official in Russia; Michael Klingensmith, who recently retired as vice president of Time Warner; and others from countries around the world. The next meeting is in Greece.

"Don's pleased that so many of the task force members were able to attend this meeting," Wawrzyniak said. "He and the task force are looking forward to a similarly productive meeting early next month in Athens."

Those attending last week's meetings included former Plant City Commissioner and three-time Mayor Randy Larson, who was mayor when the softball federation negotiated to move from Oklahoma City to the stadium complex on Park Road about nine years ago.

"It's great to be a part of the Back Softball task force," Larson said. "We feel it is important to keep softball an Olympic sport. The sport is played by men and women all over the world.

"Its appeal is definitely more international than many of the sports firmly placed in the Olympics."

The softball federation Web site at www.international softball.com shows that it has members around the globe, including countries in Europe, Asia and Africa.

Larson was the program moderator and guest speaker at a Thursday dinner attended by the task force at Lone Palm Country Club in Lakeland.

"The task force meeting in Athens will help accommodate members in that area of the world," Larson said. "We will all congregate at the Beijing Olympics for a wrap-up meeting for the year.

"We are looking forward to a successful Olympics for softball and all the sports and nations included."

Reporter George H. Newman can be reached at (813) 865-4451 or gnewman@tampatrib.com.

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