SUNDRE – The president of the local minor ball organization was encouraged to see more than 200 players signed up to play ball following the recent registration period.
“Registration was amazing actually; we ended up with a lot of players,” said Michele Blackhurst, adding there overall was a total of 206 ball players.
That means Sundre Minor Ball was able to field eight baseball teams, seven softball squads, as well as four first-league teams, she said on April 18.
Although fairly comparable to past years in terms of baseball and first league, Blackhurst was pleased to see additional softball teams this season.
“I don’t think we’ve had this many softball teams in many years,” she said. “It’s nice to see we have almost as many softball teams as baseball teams, which is really great.”
Leading up to the first practices of the season was a softball clinic hosted by the Alberta Athletics Elite Softball Academy on April 22 at the Sundre High School gym as well as a baseball skills clinic scheduled for April 29 under Jeff Peach at the Sundre ball diamonds.
Regular practices and games are expected to begin shortly afterward.
“We’re hoping to be on the diamonds for the first week of May; it looks like that shouldn’t be a problem,” she said. “The snow actually melted off the diamonds quicker than I thought; I was a little worried. But for now, we are still practising in the community centre and Timber River Station.”
Presenting something of a logistical snag this season is the unavailability of Diamond 2, which is undergoing a municipally-led effort to improve the grounds that started late last summer.
“The town has been trying to work on maintenance on the field for the last few years, which is great,” she said, adding that work also included “top dressing” Diamond 3, which amounts to spreading and smoothing out fresh soil and simply letting the grass grow through.
“But Diamond 2 was pretty rough, so the decision was made to actually work it up and reseed it and roll,” she said. “And it looks fabulous; it’s going to be nice.”
Unfortunately, she said that because of the way the timing worked out last season, the grass did not yet get enough of a chance to grow.
“So, now it’s just a dirt outfield,” she said, adding minor ball wants to give the freshly seeded grounds a chance to take before playing.
“Even if it’s starting to grow, we don’t want to hinder the growth and make it worse for next year,” she said.
“It does throw a bit of a wrench into our season; we’re forced to look for an alternate diamond or two. So, we’re in the process of doing that right now,” she said, adding options considered so far include Westward Ho or Eagle Hill.
Otherwise, the 2023 season is shaping up really well so far, she said.
“We have some awesome new board members that are settling in quite well and everything is going smooth,” she said, adding new sponsored jerseys emblazoned with the organization’s new universal team name – The Stealers – were on the way.
Additionally, she said minor ball managed to make arrangements with new partners to completely fill out the sponsorship board.
“There used to be two empty spots,” she said. “This year it’s all full, so that’s really exciting.”