DIAMOND DREAMS
Men’s softball back at Games for first time since 2005, women’s squad looking to build on recent success
Canada Games column takes aim at P.E.I.’s men’s and women’s softball as they prepare for Winnipeg
Thinking back to my first Canada Games experience, there are a couple of things I remember almost immediately after we touched down in Kamloops, B.C.
The first was the lineup to get my accreditation photo taken and the second was walking into the athlete’s village and seeing a few guys I knew walking with bronze medals around their neck. They were members of the men’s softball team who were getting ready to head to the airport after a very successful week.
It was announced in March 2012 that men’s softball would be part of the Canada Games sport program in 2017 after not being included during the past two games. The last time men’s softball was in the Games was in Regina, Sask., in 2005.
Once the announcement was made, work started to select a coaching staff and begin recruiting and developing potential athletes for a team. Interestingly, two members of the 1993 bronze medal-winning team are coaching the 2017 P.E.I. men’s softball team with Mark Quinn serving as head coach and Mike Bishop as assistant.
The team features 15 players from Tignish to Montague and has been very active during the past couple of years. This summer, they are playing in the P.E.I. Senior Men’s Fastball League and are participating in a number of tournaments as they build up to a very gruelling schedule in Winnipeg. The team will compete during the first week and play a full round robin, which means nine games before the playoff and placing rounds begin. This requires the team to not only build their skill, but their endurance as well.
The team’s centre-fielder, Avery Arsenault, was a member of the junior men’s national team program that won a bronze medal at the world
championships in 2016 and he will be looked upon for leadership.
The women’s softball competition will take place during the second week of the Games and their coaching staff is loaded with Canada Games and national team experience.
Jeff Ellsworth coached the women’s team at the 2009 Canada Games and assistant coach Ashley Praught has attended
three games, twice as an athlete (softball and hockey) and in 2015, she was a member of the women’s hockey team’s staff.
Last summer, I got the chance to watch many of the athletes on this team play while volunteering for the Canadian Under-21 Women’s Fastpitch Championships in Summerside. I left the stands very impressed with the skill, knowledge and intensity they played with. Their efforts in this event was a precursor of things to come as they eventually ended up winning the bronze medal at the Canadian Senior Women’s Fastpitch Championships held later in the summer in O’Leary.
The team features a well-balanced line-up with three of their players returning to the Games for a second time. Hope Higginbotham and Sarah Woodside were part of the female hockey team in Prince George, B.C., in 2015 while Clara Wood was part of the softball team in Sherbrooke, Que., in 2013. The team will also rely on the experience Jada Yeo gained playing with Simon Fraser University while competing in the NCAA division 2 softball league this past year.
The team is looking forward to a strong performance at the 2017 Games and I know they have put in the work to achieve those results. Francois Caron is the central region co-ordinator for the sport, recreation and physical activity division of the P.E.I. Department of Health and Wellness. He has attended nine Games and will be Team P.E.I.’s assistant chef de mission during the second week of the 2017 Canada Games.