Ottawa opens doors, hearts to ballplayers
There will be a whole lot more cooking and cleaning to do over the next 10 days at the Barrhaven home of Steve Laviolette and his wife, Jaye Turner-Laviolette.
Friday kicks off the Canadian Little League Championship, held in Ottawa for the first time by the East Nepean Little League, and the couple has opened their home to six players from the Glace Bay McDonald’s Colonels from the Cape Breton area of Nova Scotia.
“We started asking for 12,” said Steve, 51, an engineer and the tournament’s chair.
“I always joked that I wanted a big family because I came from a big family, (but) we only have two kids so I just borrow everybody else’s.”
It’s the third time the couple has billeted little leaguers in the last decade. Jaye, 54, who works in special education with Ottawa’s public school board, makes a whole meal plan for the boys.
“If my boys were to go somewhere, I’d want them to be treated the way I’m treating these boys. They’re somebody else’s treasure,” said Jaye.
“Last time Jaye was crying a bit when they were leaving,” Steve chimed in. “You get so attached to them that you feel like your kids are going away.”
It sounds like a lot of work for a family with two kids of their own, but Steve said his door’s open.
“Nothing fazes the man,” said billeting co-ordinator Susan Dennison. “He just rolls with it.”
Steve and Jaye are among 10 families who are putting roofs over the heads of 24 tween boys from two of the seven competing teams at this year’s tournament.
Dennison said the families are well-vetted, and the kids’ parents are shown photos of the rooms, the homes and the hosts.
“As a parent I know the angst these parents are having, so we tried to ease it by communicating in advance as much as we could,” she said.
In total, about 100 young sluggers from seven teams across Canada filled the streets of downtown Ottawa on Thursday for a morning of sightseeing in the nation’s capital. Each team took a tour of Parliament Hill and saw the changing the guard, the National War Memorial, the Rideau Canal, Major’s Hill Park and more of Ottawa’s downtown scenery. Later, they scarfed down BeaverTails, the classic Ottawa treat whose first taste might just cause a religious awakening for a sugar-hungry young Canadian.
“We’ve been walking around downtown and admiring the beautiful buildings here in Ottawa,” said Cam O’Reilly, 11, of the Moose Jaw AAA All-Stars. “It’s really cool. We don’t have this in Moose Jaw.”
The teams play six games during the seven-day round robin, then try to reach the final scheduled for Aug. 16. The winners will head to Little League World Series in Williamsburg, Pennsylvania, in late August.
“It’s going to feel pretty awesome,” said 13-year-old Liam Burke, a Glace Bay centre-fielder. “There are a lot of teams that are really, really tough to play against. I’m excited.”
The home team’s Ben Anderson, 13, said coming into the tournament on a hot streak and having the home field advantage means the Eagles have a good shot at going the distance.