New Mid-Winter Tournament/Vacation in the Caribbean!

July 1, 2019

View of beach at Barcelo Bavaro Palace Resort.

Senior Softball USA is pleased to announce a new international tournament to be held January 2020 on the beautiful island of Hispaniola.  This inaugural Caribbean Classic will feature one or two SSUSA teams assembled from the USA and Canada playing against local senior softball teams from the Dominican Republic.

SSUSA players and their guests will be staying at the Bavaro Barcelo Palace all-inclusive beachfront resort in Punta Cana.  This resort has experienced zero health incidents involving its guests, yet bookings are down due to the recent media frenzy.  As a promotion and gesture of goodwill, the resort has agreed to waive its usual day use fee and allow up to three Dominican teams to come onto its access-controlled grounds and play against our SSUSA players on its beautiful ballfield, located just 50 yards from the beach (see photos below, included with the itinerary).

“This is a beautiful resort which includes not only all meals at the main buffet or 11 specialty restaurants,” says Jim Goff, Tournament Co-Director, “but also 4 pools, several bars including a sports bar, 24-hour casino, disco, fitness center and spa, business center, 18-hole mini golf (free until 6 pm), tennis courts, multi-sports courts, paddle tennis courts, ping pong, beach volleyball, beach exercise/yoga sessions, free non-motorized water sports such as windsurfing and snorkeling, and free nightly entertainment shows”.  Goff reports that this resort also offers several nominal-fee activities such as billiard tables, a 4-lane bowling alley, arcade games, a wave pool, and a Pete Dye-designed 18-hole championship golf course.

“The ballfield is maintained using the same equipment as the golf course”, Jim adds, “and the grass is like a smooth carpet.  It’s a gorgeous field, and unique in being right on the resort property and just steps from the beach.”

“Our purpose in launching this new tournament/vacation is two-fold,” says Terry Hennessy, CEO of SSUSA, “First, to introduce our version of senior slow pitch to players from the Caribbean and Latin America.  They play by somewhat different rules down there, but they have agreed to play by our rules in this new SSUSA-sanctioned tournament”.

“Secondly”, says Hennessy, “we thought a tournament in January combined with an all-inclusive beach vacation would appeal to SSUSA players, and particularly players living in the upper Midwest and Eastern USA and Canada who for various reasons can’t do the snowbird thing each winter”.  He continues “Flights from these areas to Punta Cana are numerous, direct, and reasonably priced.  And from the Eastern and Central time zones, they aren’t long redeye flights.”

Do not miss this opportunity to be one of the “founding players” for this new tournament.  Come as a team, a partial team, or an individual player.  For this first year, sign-ups will be limited to the first 30 SSUSA-registered players.  The deadline for sign-ups is October 31.

Questions? Call Anthony Ramos at (916) 326-5303.

Final Note on Health and Safety: SafeAround, a website that lets travelers assess risk levels in over 100 countries and cities worldwide, reports that the Dominican Republic is a generally safe country for tourists, and especially those tourists who stay in hotels and resorts on the East side of the island in areas such as Punta Cana, where “the only major risk is getting a bad sunburn”.  The U.S. State Department Travel Advisory service currently rates the Dominican Republic at Level 2, the same health and safety rating as the United Kingdom and France.

For a full, day-by-day itinerary, please CLICK HERE.