Slo-pitch team headed to national championship
Tanis Trottier is a five-time Canadian slo-pitch champion but she’s never had the chance to represent her Prince George hometown at the national event. Until this year.
The seed to form a northern B.C. team was planted last year when Trottier met her wife Ashlee Brown while they were playing for the Abbotsford-based Team B.C. Adrenaline. Once Brown moved to Prince George in March the plan was put in place to enter a local team in the national women’s championship in Lethbridge, Aug. 13-20.
Brown, a 35-year-old Toronto native who played 10 years for Team Ontario, has hopes the new team will stimulate interest in high-level women’s slo-pitch in Prince George and the surrounding region.
The fact she wasn’t quite ready to retire from the game was also a factor that gave rise to the team.
“In Ontario slo-pitch for women is huge – on any weekend we’d compete against 10 or 12 solid ladies teams,” said Brown.
There’s so many good ball players out here and they just weren’t getting that opportunity and that’s where it started.
“I wanted to have fun and play with friends and form a team that is going to make other girls from the north want to play. I want them to see there’s more to this than just the league. It can only grow.”
The 16-player B.C. Blaze roster includes six Prince George players – Trottier, Ashlee Brown, Tanya Gagnon, Chelsey Thorne, Sharmayne Owen, and Stacey Hewlett. Bill Reid, Jason Dauvin and Ryan Hewlett, all of Prince George, are the coaches.
The team also includes players from Quesnel and the Okanagan. The Blaze nickname was inspired by last summer’s wildfires.
The P.G. contingent plays together in the Prince George Nechako Mixed Slo-Pitch League A Division at the two-diamond facility off North Nechako Road.
There are no other teams of national tournament calibre in the region and Trottier says that makes it difficult to prepare. The Blaze have been limited to just three tournaments this season but have done well, finishing third in all three.
“It’s the best level you could ever imagine here and times it by 10,” said the 40-year-old Trottier, referring to the quality of play at nationals. “It’s not just about your bat, your glove, your footspeed. It’s about your personality and your teammates, and especially on a new team it has to be a really good gel first. Then you can start adding positional pieces and things to increase your winnability.”
Trottier, the Blaze shortstop, is well-familiar with the calibre of teams that play in the national tournament and she predicts the darkhorse Blaze, as first-time competitors, will be in the thick of the title chase.
“I think we’re going to turn a lot of heads, there’s going to be a lot of shocked faces – I’d be shocked if we didn’t medal,” said Trottier.
“When it comes to clutch hitting, our lineup is so consistent all the way through. There’s no weak spot in our hitting. Usually your pitchers are your weaker hitters but we don’t have that problem, we are solid all the way through with the sticks. We’re really fast and the arm strength on the team is ridiculous.”
Dauvin has coached the bantam/midget Thunderbirds girls softball teams for several seasons and he’s seen some of the top softball players in the province chasing B.C. titles. As a slo-pitch player himself in the Nechako League he relishes his chance to play a part in helping the Blaze win a national event.
“Some of my best memories have been playing with the guys in softball and playing mixed,” he said. “Playing at that high level is the most fun you’re going to have. People think of slo-pitch as a beer league but it’s actually highly competitive.
“The challenge is having our players all over the province. You only get together at the tournaments.”
Dauvin recognizes there are players in the other slo-pitch leagues in the city who aren’t playing with the Blaze and is hopeful they will try out for next year’s team to bring more of a local flavour.
After moving back to Prince George in 2013 Trottier played four seasons for Adrenaline and she helped them win the 2016 national championship in Whitehorse, Yukon.
Brown joined Adrenaline last year for the national event in Saint Bruno, Que.
They went 8-2 in the roundrobin but were knocked out of title contention in the playoffs with back-to-back losses.
Trottier played for Calgary and Edmonton teams that both brought home national titles and in 2008 she was Softball Alberta’s adult female slo-pitch player of the year.
She and Brown won gold playing for Team Canada at the inaugural women’s championship last year at the Slo-Pitch Border Battle in Oklahoma City, Okla., and they’re playing this weekend for Kahunaverse in the 2018 Border Battle in Kitchener, Ont.
As the Blaze centrefielder, Brown relishes her role heading to nationals in Lethbridge with a team of relative unknowns.
“Nobody knows us, we know everybody but they don’t know us,” said Brown.
“I think this is the beginning of something really great. Hopefully it will encourage other girls to come out and want to play.”
I think we’re going to turn a lot of heads, there’s going to be a lot of shocked faces – I’d be shocked if we didn’t medal.
— Tanis Trottier