League History
1993 The Guelph Township Coed Slo-Pitch League was formed with one division of ten teams playing out at Marden Park and a few city diamonds on Thursday nights only. It was more of a social gathering every Thursday Night Out at Marden Park.
1994 Two additional teams joined and formed two divisions of six teams each. This year there was "A" Division and "B" Division champions, as well as an overall League champion.
1995 More teams joined in this year and the League expanded to two divisions with a total of 18 teams. Lyon Financial won the National Recreational Slo-Pitch title.
1996 The League combined with the Royal City Mixed Competitive Slo-Pitch League on a trial basis for the 1996 season. The National Recreational Slo-Pitch Championships were held in Guelph August 8th through 12th.
1997 The League officially merged with the Royal City Mixed Competitive Slo-Pitch League and divided the 24 teams into three divisions.
1998 The League adopted a Uniqueness clause to ensure that the "Foundation" rules would keep the League as it was intended. A Performance Bond was also instituted.
1999 The League continued under the structure of 24 teams, with 3 divisions of 8 teams. There were overall winners in each of the "A", "B", and "C" divisions as well as winners in the playoffs. The position of Statistician was added to the Executive.
2000 The League lost 2 teams and is now operating with 22 teams - "A" division having 6 teams while "B" and "C" continued with 8 teams. Following the completion of the season the top 2 teams from "B" and "C" will move up to the next division.
2001 The League will again operate with 24 teams.
2002 The League has lost 4 teams and will operate with a new format - two divisions of 10 teams. The league will address this issue at the end of the season.
2003 The League will return to 3 divisions of 8 teams. This was the first year with our web site, which enabled teams to check schedules, rules and submit scores online.
2004 The league continued with 24 teams in 3 divisions. Winners were declared in each of the divisions for regular season and the closing tournament.
2005 The league adopts a 4 division of 6 teams format. This new format hopefully will allow for a more competitive season as well as an engine for teams to play a broader range of teams through our inter-division play.
2006 The league returned to the 3 division format. New interest has allowed the league 2 divisions of 8 teams and 1 division of 10. The league joined ventures with the Royal City Men’s SloPitch League to install permanent magnetic bases at all diamonds.
2007 The League has tried to continue with the 3 division format. With 21 teams, the league operated with 7 teams in each division. Added to the Uniqueness clause this year will be the intention of hosting the opening tournament on the first weekend in June and the closing tournament on the last weekend in September. The Statistician position has been removed from the Executive and is now a contracted position. The statistician duties will be expanded and some Executive duties will be reduced as a result of this change. A new website merger with the Royal City Men’s SloPitch League will allow more exposure for both leagues. (www.slopitchcentral.ca)
2008 The league expanded to 30 teams with the addition of 10 new teams and will continue to use the 3 Division format. The divisions were modified slightly to allow for even competition in lower divisions while exposing some existing teams to the A division for future experience. In order to accommodate the expansion, diamonds were used at various sites as well as Guelph Lake.
2009 The League expanded further to 32 teams this year and expanded use of more diamonds.
2010 League expansion to 34 teams in 4 divisions. The University and Marden Park were upgraded and the future looks promising for further growth. The Secretary position was merged with the Vice President so as to share duties
2011 The makeup of the divisions over the past few years has allowed for a competitive balance amongst each division. We operated with 33 teams in 4 divisions with hopes of future expansion.The league website was updated to reflect the Men’s and Coed divisions separately www.gtcspl.slopitchcentral.ca
2012 The league operated with 32 teams split throughout 4 divisions. We have associated with Slo Pitch Ontario as the new governing body. Expansion efforts have been put on hold pending future availability of diamonds.
2013 With additional interest in the League, we added a Wednesday night division bringing our total number of teams to 37 for this year. The new division will grow over the years and these teams will have first rights to any openings in the Tuesday/Thursday divisions.
2014 The League officially incorporated as a Not For Profit Organization known as Good To Go Slo Pitch. Further interest in the League has expanded our Wednesday night division increasing the League to 40 teams this year.
2015 The League operated with 36 teams in 4 divisions. The years of relegation and promotion have allowed us to balance the divisions competitively amongst each other.
2016 The League expanded to 39 teams and added a Monday division that will cross with the Wednesday division in order to add a variety in their schedule.
2017 The League expanded to 40 teams in 5 divisions. We joined with RCMSPL & WCCSPL to form a larger
group incorporating a Builder’s Fee for assistance with diamond repairs and upgrades. The joint effort puts us over 100 teams and makes us stronger and allows us to spread expenses over three leagues who share similar diamonds.
2018 The League will operate with 39 teams this year. We will continue the Builder Fee partnership with RCMSPL and WCCSPL. Further expansion plans are still priority however, current diamond space limits this to adding new nights in the future.
2019 The League has increased to 40 teams in 5 divisions. A NEW co-branded website has been developed.
- www.guelphslopitch.ca is the Host site with gtcspl.ca and rcmspl.ca becoming the partner sites to accommodate each league. Other Leagues will be approached to join the Host site as a SloPitch Community
2020 The League reduced to 4 divisions (Mon-Thur) with 38 teams. We also added 20 more teams with the amalgamation of the WCCSPL. Thus bringing the total to 58 teams. The new Sunday group will compete in 3 Tiers. Builders fee investments this past year included improvements to Marden park and University of Guelph with future plans for Guelph lake diamonds.
**Unfortunately Covid-19 put a Complete Stop to the 2020 season.
2021 After missing out on the 2020 season and part of 2021, we began operating in July with reduced schedules and team numbers for the season. We had 33 teams between 7 divisions. We anticipate a full return to normal for 2022. The end of the season also saw use of a $10,000 investment from the Builder's fee to upgrade the lighting at the Marden park facility.
2022 While we move out of the struggles of the past two years, we do anticipate some changes to League size and structure. An anticipated rebuild will allow for some new teams to enter the League but will also see divisional re-alignment to maintain parity across divisions.
2023 Strong interest in the League has prompted growth once again. Newly aligned Tiers (formerly Divisions) to allow for future growth and balance of scheduling opportunities.
2024 The newly formed PlaySloPitch Association (SPO/SPN) will give teams & players many new opportunities. Re-aligned divisions and new Regular Season formats in some divisions should align teams in balanced divisions for equal competition.