Thunder to play host to provincial softball championships this summer
U17 girls eastern Canadian champs will play in 2024 U19 tournament at Bowers Park
The Peterborough Thunder did such a good job hosting an eastern Canadian softball championship last year they’ve been asked to host an Ontario championship in 2024.
The Thunder U17 girls captured the bronze medal as host of the Eastern Canadian U17 Softball Championships at Bowers Park in 2023.
This year, the same group of girls will move up an age group and host the Provincial Women’s Softball Association U19 championships on July 26-28 at Bowers Park.
This will be a bigger undertaking for the Thunder as only 10 teams competed at the eastern Canadian event utilizing two diamonds while this year up to 30 teams may attend provincials, requiring use of all four diamonds at the park on Fleming College’s Sutherland Campus.
“The Provincial Women’s Softball Association reached out to us to see if we were interested in hosting any more tournaments because I guess we did a half decent job at the eastern Canadians,” said Thunder president and U19 girls coach Craig Whitnell. “It was nice to hear. They asked us to put a bid in. They liked how our tournament was situated with the four diamonds and lights and how the city did a great job.”
Whitnell said the idea of taking on 30 teams did seem daunting, but the community support was so good for last year’s event he felt they could pull it off again.
We have a great bunch of parents and the community really came together and people came out of the woodwork to help. The city was great and everything came together,” he said. “We thought, ‘What the heck.’ It’s good for the girls to host it in town. We couldn’t believe the support we had and the number of people coming out to watch. The girls really liked it and their families got to see it, too, their grandparents and friends. It’s a lot of work but it’s well worth it.”
Last year, the Thunder placed sixth at provincials, just missing out on the semifinals after losing their final two games by one run. This year, they will be among the youngest teams as half will be in their first year of U19 and half will still be U17 eligible but are making the jump.
Whitnell said they’ll get plenty of tournament experience leading up to provincials to be best prepared. They have already played in one tournament this year at an indoor facility at Seneca College last month, finishing with a 1-1-1 record.
“We are in a lot of tournaments this year,” said Whitnell. “We’ll get prepared that way and we also play in the Central East League, which goes from Aurora to Napanee. The tournaments really do help because they’re over a two- or threeday span and you have to manage your team well and the team has to come and play. It’s not like playing one or two games a week,” he said.
The majority of girls have returned from last year’s team with four new additions to bolster the roster, one from Whitby and three from Cobourg.
Whitnell has coached the core 10 players for four years, some of whom had not played competitive softball before joining his team.
“There were some growing pains at first,” he said. “Some coaches ask me how many we get out for practice and we get 10 or 11 in the gym at winter time and at the field house. They’re a dedicated bunch, which makes my job a lot easier.”
The tournament will featured pool play to begin with to decide which teams will advance to playoffs. The tournament champion and finalist will advance to the eastern Canadian championships in Newfoundland in August.
Anyone interested in volunteering at the tournament can contact Whitnell at 705-740-5147 or sewwhatpro@sympatico.ca.