Ryan Boland (left) & Jason Hill are two of four local players headed to Columbia this week
Fresh off Newfoundland and Labrador's first ever gold medal at the Canadian Championship, a quartet of Newfoundlanders are heading to Medellin, Columbia this week to suit up for Team Canada in a Pan American zone qualifier for the upcoming ISF World Fastpitch Championship next spring in New Zealand. Ryan Boland, Blair Ezekiel, Jason Hill, and Stephen Mullaley will be donning the Maple Leaf next week in South America as Team Canada tries to punch their ticket to the World Championship.
It is a 10 nation tournament with the top 5 teams advancing to the World Championship. Joining the Canadians are Ecuador, Argentina, Colombia, Guatemala, Dominicana, Bahamas ,Venezuela, México, and Puerto Rico. At the last ISF tournament in Saskatoon in 2009, Canada finished in third place. Newfoundlanders on that team included Colin Abbott, Stephen Mullaley, Sean O'Brien and Sean Whitten.
The players will depart Thursday for the tournament that begins Saturday in Medellin, with the Canadians seeing their first action on Sunday vs Puerto Rico. The Canadians fully expect to finish in the top 5 and qualify for New Zealand, but Hill says it's not so cut and dry as showing up and getting a ticket to the ISF. "These guys are all there to qualify the same as us. On top of that, not many of us have played ball in Columbia in September before. We expect it to be hot and very different from the weather we just expereinced in Fredericton. Plus, we have some players not making this trip because of work commitments after a long summer of squeezing all they could out of vacation time."
Some of those not making the trip due to work commitments are Sean Whitten and Sean Cleary, the 1-2 punch from 3 Cheers gold medal squad, and Brad Ezekiel, ever the catalyst on any team he plays with. That's seven players born and groomed here on the Rock locked into Team Canada, something never before seen at the national level.
When asked about that, Hill just smiled and said, "pretty cool hey?"
"But I think this has been a long time coming. When you look back through the history of our game here in Newfoundland, there's been world class players here long before the seven of us got named to this team. Guys like Colin (Abbott) and Brock (Jerome Brocklehurst) and those guys really pioneered the game in terms of us getting really noticed on a national level. Before those guys, Newfoundlanders got looked at once a year (at nationals), but now we are getting exposure every weekend throughout the season. It sure makes it easier for National Team coaches to commit to players out here."
Hill is referring to the large number of Newfoundlanders who travel to top level tournaments all throughout the year. In the 80s and 90s, maybe one or two guys a year would do that. The last few years, that number has skyrocketed to the point that Newfoundland players are sought after and the St. John's Senior Men's League is regarded as one of the, if not the single best league in the country.
While the weather in Columbia and maybe not having the "A" squad on hand may certainly be factors, the Canadians boast a lineup of world class players and should easily climb to the top of the standings board. Abby's Sports will be providing daily updates from Columbia and will keep you all updated on the progress of our local boys.
