After 48 years of service, Don Porter has retired from his role as president of the International Softball Federation. Dale McMann, previously the first vice president, now has big shoes to fill.
When Don Porter, the longtime president of the International Softball Federation, announced his retirement in October, it was a big deal. Porter, a fixture in the community, called it a career and handed the reins to Dale McMann, who hails from Canada.
Anyone worried about the future of the ISF in the Winter Strawberry Capital of the World can relax: The new president can’t imagine the ISF moving elsewhere.
“We’ve not been disappointed in the way that the city has treated us,” McMann said. “They’ve lived up to every expectation. I love Plant City.”
Although McMann won’t be in town as often as Porter, he plans to come around often enough to become a familiar face.
OUTSIDE THE LINES
McMann was born and raised in Alberta, Canada, and remained in the area until he finished his undergraduate degree at the University of Alberta. After earning a bachelor’s degree in business administration, he enrolled in graduate school at the University of Waterloo. He earned his master’s degree in economics and moved to the province of British Columbia, where he’s still based. Ten years ago, he earned a diploma in executive leadership from Royal Roads University.
His venture into the business world brought him to B.C. Housing, the real estate development company for which he has worked for more than 30 years. Now the director of operations, McMann oversees the management of about $8 billion in residential and commercial properties in the province.
McMann said he’s comfortable jumping from real estate to softball at a moment’s notice, thanks to a staff that has been together for a while.
“We’ve got a great staff,” McMann said. “I’m able to leave my job and just know that everything’s going to be OK while I’m out.”
While his softball career has just entered a new chapter, his real estate career is entering its final one. There are still a few projects on the table that McMann would like to finish, and then he’ll determine whether or not it’s time to retire.
Successful as he may be in the fields of business and real estate, softball may be his biggest passion.
A HAPPY ACCIDENT
McMann’s foray into softball administration happened in 1978, while he was playing fast-pitch in a men’s league. At the time, he had never given any thought to anything beyond just going out onto the diamond and playing for fun. And then, one day, he was recruited.
“It was purely by accident,” McMann said. “I was approached by one of the people in the league I was playing at, saying that they needed an organizer for Softball British Columbia and Softball Canada in the area, and would I do it?”
He accepted the role and moved up in the ranks fairly quickly. Eight years after volunteering on a whim to be a local organizer, in 1986, McMann was elected president of Softball British Columbia. In 1990, he was named president of Softball Canada — a post he held until 2002.
After 15 years of working exclusively in Canadian softball, the ISF came calling in 1993 — he had been elected to the federation’s board of directors, as the North American vice president.
TRAVELING THE WORLD
That election made McMann a much busier guy: He was tasked with helping to promote softball over international lines.
“I’m a passionate believer in the value of sport to communities and children all over the world,” McMann said. “I believe that softball can bring good things to communities.”
When he was elected first vice president in 2009, serving directly under Porter, McMann’s international role expanded further. Asking about his travels almost sounds like inviting him to throw darts at a map of the world and call out the landing spots.
“I’ve been to Argentina, Venezuela, Peru, Brazil, Guatemala, Honduras, Puerto Rico, the Bahamas, tons of travel in Europe and Asia, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Senegal and lots of other African countries,” McMann said.
That includes trips to China, Japan and Russia. In 2013 alone, McMann visited at least six different countries — he’s unsure exactly how many trips to Europe he had to make — and still, he managed to keep things running smoothly at B.C. Housing.
“I’m good at compartmentalizing,” McMann said. “I use time management to balance my real estate job with softball and my travels. … It’s a balancing act.”
He enjoyed, firsthand, the significance of the first softball tournament in the 1996 Olympic Games, and the sheer spectacle of Beijing’s 2008 Olympics, but McMann cited a United Nations conference in Senegal as a defining moment in his softball career. He and the U.N. board examined the effect of organized sport in the lives of Senegal’s young people, and they found that it did enhance the young ones’ qualities of life.
“It’s good to see what softball, and other sports, can do to enhance the quality of life in other countries,” McMann said. “Sometimes, we don’t really recognize the value that doing something like sports has on our lives.”
THE FUTURE
In the past, McMann typically visited Plant City three to four times a year, never staying longer than a week, but expects that figure to double or triple in his new role. He loves attending the Florida Strawberry Festival whenever he can and enjoys the small-town feel with the easy access to Tampa and Orlando.
“It’s far enough away, though, to be a small community with a sense of community,” McMann said.
Although the administrative roles have changed in the ISF, McMann’s goals are in line with what Porter wanted to accomplish.
The fight to bring softball back into the Olympic Games continues, with hopes for Tokyo in 2020. Aside from that, the Hall of Fame museum plans are still a work in progress, and the federation is looking to bring some action to Plant City.
Of those three areas, the only definite is that there will be some big-time softball coming this way. And, it’s coming soon: Jan. 23. Both the ISF Co-Ed Slow Pitch World Cup and the ISF/ISSA Senior Tournament of Champions will be held from Jan. 23 to 26, which will require all three of the softball facilities to be used simultaneously. The tournaments, especially the World Cup, should be a big draw for international tourism.
For McMann, it’s a good way to start both 2014 and his tenure as president of the ISF. Although he’s heading into his 36th year of involvement with the sport, he’s as excited as ever.
“It’s been a tremendous experience for me,” he said.
Contact Justin Kline at jkline@plantcityobserver.com.