Softball at the entry level
Four communities come out for inaugural North Slave Clinic/Competition
James McCarthy
Northern News Services
Tuesday, July 26, 2016
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
It would appear youth baseball and softball are seeing a bounce of sorts in recent times and that could be attributed to the Toronto Blue Jays.
Alvin Kotchilea of Whati takes a swing at the ball during the inaugural North Slave Clinic/Competition hosted by NWT Softball in Yellowknife on July 17. - James McCarthy/NNSL photo
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But there is the hope that the interest in the two sports carries on in the NWT and the first step toward that happened in Yellowknife earlier this month.
Four communities - Whati, Gameti, Ndilo and Dettah - all had participants in the inaugural North Slave Clinic/Competition hosted by NWT Softball and the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs (MACA) in Yellowknife from July 15 to 17.
One of the people behind making the event happen was Dan Acosta, Whati's recreation co-ordinator, who has a baseball background from his time living in Ontario.
He said the weekend was all about giving youth a chance to learn the finer points of the sport.
"I was hoping I could bring some of the stuff I've done in the past up here and spark a bit of interest in softball in the North," he said. "There was a lot of good people working on making this happen."
"(Dan) was looking to do something ball-related and was talking with Mike Yakabuski (from MACA)," said Paul Gard, president of NWT Softball. "They wanted to use Tommy Forrest and I said we'd want to be involved if they wanted to use Tommy Forrest."
The weekend was solely on skill development and fundamentals with stations set up all over Tommy Forrest Ball Park, the main fastpitch ground in Yellowknife. There was work in fielding, throwing, catching and hitting in the batting cage and even some small game play. When it came to the games, the Saturday saw the players hitting off of a tee just to get the ball into play. Sunday saw Yakabuski join in the action to act as a pitcher for the mini-games.
Most of what was worked on fell under Softball Canada's Learn To Play model and to help with that, Bryan Sask, a master coach with Softball Canada and a familiar face to some in the NWT, came back North from B.C. Sask has done clinics before in communities such as Tsiigehtchic, Tuktoyaktuk, Deline and Hay River in the past.
"That's earned him a bit of respect," said Gard. "He's been all over the NWT and he understands the kids in the communities better than a lot of other outside coaches would."
Acosta said Sask made it easy for the players to enjoy themselves out on the field.
"He had drills and games which kept the kids interested," he said.
MACA's Regional Youth Sporting Event (RYSE) program helped get Sask back into the NWT while the players all paid a small fee to take part.
During the course of the weekend, it was obvious that some had natural ability and picked up the sport right away but there were some who had never picked up a bat at all and it did show.
"They couldn't get a glove on when it started but by the time it was over, they were right in it and playing right along," said Gard.
There is the hope from both Gard and Acosta to have a second go-round at something like this and Acosta said if the response is as good as it was this year, it will be a success.
"When I first put the idea to the kids back in May that we may go to Yellowknife, they were bugging me and asking when we were going," he said. "We have a good core group of kids who play everything and I would like to see this happen again."
