Layritz Little Leaguers dealt final blow
World Series, Canadian championship cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic
The news Thursday landed with a heartbreaking thud from Williamsport, Pennsylvania, to Layritz Park in Saanich.
The cancellation of the 2020 Little League World Series hit hardest at Layritz Park, which was scheduled to host the 2020 Canadian Little League championship in August with the winner to advance to Willamsport. All regional Little League championships were also cancelled.
“A very tough day for all Little Leaguers across the globe,” Layritz tweeted.
The 2020 Canadian Little League championship would have been broadcast nationally on CBC from Aug. 6 to 16 at Layritz Park. Organizers saw this coming but it still resonates most when it becomes official.
“It’s a really tough day,” said Dave Potter, head coach of the host Laytriz team. “We were expecting this but it doesn’t diminish the disappointment.”
Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry says of the pandemic restrictions, “this isn’t forever but it is for now.”
But for certain athletes — those graduating from Little League, seniors in college and university and 20-year-olds in major-junior hockey — it is forever.
The all 12-year-old Layritz team was put together as eight-year-olds building to this summer in the hopes of reaching the Little League
World Series in Williamsport.
“It’s easier for the adults to wrap their heads around this than the kids,” Shannon Nakatsu, chair of the 2020 Canadian Little League championship committee, had said
“Maybe we can bid to host the nationals again in the future but these players will have aged out, and they have worked so hard for this for four years.”
Layritz was built for this moment and looking to become the third Island team to get to Williamsport following EsquimaltVic West in 1974 and Gordon Head in 1999.
“The kids have come up as a group working so hard for this the last few years. But it will be a dream cut short,” said Potter, who has coached at Layritz for 16 years.
“In the grand scheme of things we are lucky that we are only losing a sports contest. Still, it was something the players had looked forward to for years. We were more than a host. We had an actual shot to get to Williamsport. A once-in-a-lifetime experience for the players is gone. That part hurts.”
Bleachers seating 3,000 were to be brought in around the Layrtiz diamond and scaffolding was to be built for the CBC broadcast crew.
“It’s been nearly four years of planning and a lot of blood, sweat and tears said Nakatsu.
Coquitlam was the defending Canadian champion. B.C. teams have won the Canadian championship every year since 2005 except for 2013, when East Nepean of Ottawa was the national champion.
No Canadian team has won the Little League World Series. The only Canadian team to reach the final was Stoney Creek, Ont., in 1965.