The NBF has been in operation since 1999, taking over the Slo-Pitch league run by the Nisku Recreation Center. This league is an SPN affiliate, playing the 6/4 format. Up to 32 teams play Monday thru Thursday in one of two divisions.
There are four diamonds at the Nisku Rec Center with 2 games played on each diamond, which allows 16 teams to play each night. One of the main things the NBF wanted to do, was to improve the diamonds, starting with dirt infields, snowfence outfields, and no dugouts. Each diamond is now surrounded with 6 foot fences, shale infields, and dugouts, with new shale being added yearly. The diamonds are groomed every game day, and cared fully by the NBF (Many Thanks to Rick!).
The league’s two divisions, Monday/Wednesday and Tuesday/Thursday, are essentially operated as 2 separate leagues, run by the same organization. Both divisions are rec / semi-competitive however, ultimately all about the love of the game and having fun. Games are played at either 6:00pm or 7:45pm on Mondays/Wednesdays or Tuesdays/Thursdays, depending on the division and always at the same set of diamonds in Nisku. The season starts at the end of April and continues through to August with mid-season and "year-end play off" tournaments.
The Mid-Season tournament is put on by the NBF, which is usually mid June. It is open to all the teams, that would like to have a fun/enjoyable weekend at the Nisku Ball diamonds.
The playoffs are basically a weekend tournament in mid-August. Depending on how many teams we have or how many games are needed to fit in, we sometimes have to start early in the week.
After the league games have been completed, each team is going to be seeded, based on their final league standings. Each team is then going to play 3 round robin games. After those 3 round robin games, teams will be seeded again. That seeding will place the team, for the playoff games, on Sunday.
The final seeding, will then be separated into four different pools: