July2015

It’s been a heady couple of weeks for Jason Sanford, but he wouldn’t have it any other way.

July 15, 2015

Toronto, ON

 

ORIGINAL STORY by Kevin Adshade at The NEWS

Representing Canada – again

Jason Sanford at Pan Am Games for softball event

The News
TORONTO – It’s been a heady couple of weeks for Jason Sanford, but he wouldn’t have it any other way.

 

Jason Sanford at the recent world softball championships in Saskatoon. SUBMITTED

 

The 38-year-old Durham resident was fresh off winning a world men’s softball title the first weekend of July in Saskatoon. He flew home to Pictou County, worked a couple of long shifts at Michelin, then packed up again and flew to Toronto, joining Team Canada at the Pan Am Games last Thursday.

“It’s been crazy busy,” he said this week from Toronto. “It’s been a whirlwind.”

With all that’s been going on, Sanford hasn’t had much time to reflect on what Team Canada did at the world softball championships, but said that “it was the first Canada won that time in 23 years, so it was pretty special for us.”

It was also the first time Canada had ever claimed golf on home turf.

Last Friday, Team Canada was introduced at the Pan Am Games at Rogers Centre, the home of the Toronto Blue Jays, and was greeted with a thunderous roar from the Canadian fans.

“Walking into a sold-out Rogers Centre, with 45,000 people – we were the last team to walk in and it’s something I’ll never forget, for sure,” says Sanford, who also played at world championships for Canada in 2012 (Chile) and 2014 (Argentina).

So far, so good for the men’s team at Games; Canada opened their round robin on Sunday with a 10-5 win over Mexico with Sanford behind the plate, then the next night Canada edged the U.S. by a 3-2 margin, a game that saw Sanford sit behind starting catcher Ryan Bolland.

Canada was due to play Argentina on Tuesday, against the Dominican Republic on Wednesday and finish up the round robin with a Thursday game against Venezuela.

A lot of the events aren’t actually in the city of Toronto, but are scattered about towns that surround the city.

Sanford said the athletes village has a lot of lounges and game rooms to give athletes something to do on their down time – “hanging out, enjoying the moment,” he said – but with the softball team having to travel an hour each way to get to the playing fields this week, they really haven’t had a chance to see much of Toronto as they work their way into a regular routine.

With Canada enjoying a large medal haul at the Games, Sanford said it’s inspiring to see Canadian returning from competition athletes with medals around their necks. As of Monday afternoon, he hadn’t had an opportunity to speak with fellow Pictou County native Brittany Fraser, who won a silver in Team Dressage on Sunday.

“I don’t know her,” Sanford said, “but I know she won the silver and it's definitely encouraging to see your countrymen coming home with medals.” 

Canada’s men’s softball team is the same team that won the world championship earlier this month, minus two players (Pan Am rosters are limited to 15 players), and Sanford is hopeful for another title.

He admits that anything less than gold in Toronto would be a disappointment.

“Coming into this summer we knew the magnitude of these events,” he said. “Men’s softball isn’t in the Olympics, so this is the pinnacle of our sport. Our goal was to win double-gold.”

 

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