Kitchener, ON - National team hopefuls take to Conestoga's diamonds
The arms will be whirling and bats will be swinging when dozens of junior and senior men's national softball team hopefuls hit the fields at Conestoga College on Friday.
ORIGINAL STORY by Christine Rivet at The Record
National team hopefuls take to Conestoga's diamonds
Waterloo Region Record
KITCHENER — The arms will be whirling and bats will be swinging when dozens of junior and senior men's national softball team hopefuls hit the fields at Conestoga College on Friday.
Twenty-five prospects for Canada's junior men's fast-pitch team will vie for a spot on this country's 17-man squad destined for the world championship in Midland, Mich., next month.
Meanwhile, the senior national development camp, held concurrently at the college, will not include veteran national team players like Waterloo's Brandon Horn who paced Canada to the world title and Pan American Games gold last summer.
The senior team's coaching staff will instead evaluate about 20 newcomers, said Softball Canada's national team manager Mike Branchaud.
"Since there are no competitions in 2016 for our (senior team), it's a good chance for the coaches to look at some new guys," he said.
The teams take to the field on Friday at the college for workouts.
The juniors (aged 19 and under) get an early start from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. on Friday and the seniors take to the field from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. later in the day.
On Saturday, junior workouts at Conestoga run from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. with the seniors to follow from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
In addition, both teams head to Innerkip on Friday evening and Saturday afternoon for intra-squad games.
Pitcher and first baseman Tyler Randerson, 19, of New Hamburg, is the Canadian junior squad's only holdover from the previous worlds, held in Whitehorse, Yukon, in 2014.
He is among five locals — including Kitchener's Dallas Kipfer, Waterloo's Troy Moffitt and Jake Wiffen and Derek Hyde of Tavistock — vying for a spot on Canada's roster in advance of the Michigan world junior championship.
"I have a different mindset going into things this year," said Randerson, a senior at Waterloo-Oxford District Secondary School. "The (worlds) can be stressful and nerve-racking.
"So, I'm hoping to show the coaches my leadership qualities on a young team."
"It's always a coach's nightmare to have to select a team," said the junior team's head coach Tom Doucette, of Musquodoboit Harbour, N.S. "But that's part of the job."
The 13-team field in Midland will include the usual fast-pitch suspects from Canada, the U.S., New Zealand, Australia, Japan and Venezuela, among others, along with relative newcomers to the sport from Botswana, South Africa and Israel.
Canada's junior squad will reconvene at Conestoga College on July 13-17 for a training camp in advance of the world championship.
Softball Canada has long had a love affair with Waterloo Region's world-class softball players and facilities over the years, holding many of its national championships and development and selection camps here.
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