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Innisfail U15 Hawks girls softball heading to Canadian Nationals

For the chance to represent Canada
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A photo of the Innisfail U15 Hawks girls softball team that will be competing for a National Championship July 26-28. (Photo supplied by Ray Bergeron)

The Innisfail U15 Hawks girls softball team has a chance to go where no team from the community has gone before.

On July 26-28 the team will head to Victoria, B.C. to play in the Junior Little League Canadian National Championship. If they win the tournament, they will get the opportunity to represent Canada at the Little League Softball World Series in Washington.

Head coach Ray Bergeron said although there have been other Alberta teams who have gone this route in the past, this will be a unique occasion for the Town of Innisfail.

“All of our athletes have grown immensely,” he said. “They’re all very coachable and all very skilled in their ball talents, whether It’s working on new skills such as bunting and things we feel like we need to do to win, or honing our base running skills everybody’s worked hard and I think we’re ready for this challenge.”

Bergeron explained the Innisfail Minor Baseball Association decided to play in both Softball Alberta and Little League Softball Alberta. In the Little League, which was a new venture for the team it took them down to play in Lethbridge, Medicine Hat, and Calgary where he said they played quite well.

“This is a new opportunity for the Innisfail association and we’re quite excited for the girls to get this opportunity to compete for a national championship,” Bergeron said.

Playing in the Little League Softball Alberta this season gave them the opportunity to compete for the right to be the representative of the province at the Junior Little League Canadian National Championship. They earned the right to do just that and a team from Calgary will be joining them.

“Very excited to go, very excited to compete for a national championship, and because it’s a brand new experience I’m sure there are some nerves involved and things like that. Us as a coaching staff our job is to try and calm those nerves a little bit and get them ready to put their best foot forward,” he added.

In terms of who is in the tournament, Bergeron said he doesn’t know the final draw just yet but expects to find out soon. One thing is for sure, they will be playing some of the best teams across the country.

“I think we have as good a chance as anybody. We’ve got some good pitching at the top of our rotation, I think if we are on the bats well we can hit with anybody, and our defence is an area we’re working hard on but I think we can play defence anybody out there as well. We’ve got solid infielders and outfielders and we just have to execute,” he said.

“We got to play our best this time of year. The team that’s going to win the Canadian National Championship has to be playing their best in this tournament.”



Ian Gustafson

About the Author: Ian Gustafson

Ian began his journalism career as a reporter in Prince Albert, Sask. for the last three years, and was born and raised in Saskatchewan.
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