Eagles fly the coop
Team ceasing operations, can’t find a major sponsor
By Darryl G. Smart
Sports Editor
INNERKIP — The glass slipper the Innerkip Eagles wore during the
International Softball Congress world tournament this summer has been
smashed to pieces.
“It is with great disappointment that I announce that the Innerkip
Eagles are ceasing operations for the upcoming 2008 fastball season,”
manager Jeff Whetstone said in a press release. “Due to the inability
to secure a sponsor, we will be unable to operate.”
Whetstone said for the team to survive another season, it needed
$20,000. Despite that, the writing was on the wall.
“We could have waited until Christmas to make a decision, but it
wouldn’t be fair to the players,” Whetstone said. “But we all knew
that this would happen eventually.”
This end comes on the heels of the team's best season, which included
an eighth-place finish at the ISC world tournament in Kitchener.
“Finishing eighth at this year's ISC tournament was one of our team's
highlights,” Whetstone said.
The Eagles began their journey in 2000, winning the South Perth
Men's Fastball League, the Ontario Amateur Softball Association
eliminations, the North American Fastball Association ‘AA’ and
eastern Canadian championships.
“We won everything possible so the guys wanted to try it,” Whetstone
said.
So the Eagles’ next obvious step was to senior.
For seven years, the Eagles gradually began to make a name for
themselves on the world stage, moving up the world ladder.
In league play, the Eagles captured the 2005 title and lost to the
Jarvis Merchants in the season’s final.
“The Eagles have been a mainstay in keeping the ISC Travel League
alive and it is the unsung effort of the Jeff Whetstones in the game
that sadly gets lost when a team can no longer operate,” ISC Hall of
Famer Larry Lynch said. “Take pride in the fact that you have given
a lot of players the opportunity to play at the highest level and
continue at the highest level. Teams across North America have
bolstered their own by recruiting from small- town Innerkip.”
And that’s exactly what is starting to happen.
While catcher Pat Humphries recently signed with the current world
champion Farm Tavern, the rest of the Eagles will try to latch on
with another senior team.
Unfortunately, the numbers game may play a factor, thanks to a merger
between the Kitchener Hallman Twins and Orillia Riversharks.
As part of the merger, it was agreed the new team will consist of
players from both squads, meaning a full team's worth of players will
be looking for a place to play.
Despite the Eagles folding, Whetstone said there were no regrets.
“If you see where we started, not many people heard of Innerkip,”
Whetstone said. “Now they know most of our guys.”
Darryl Smart
519-537-2341 ext. 258
dsmart@bowesnet.com
www.woodstocksentinelreview.com
