Adam Prudhomme
Editor
A busy summer of hosting tournaments for Softball Napanee will kick off this weekend with a U14 boys contest, held Saturday and Sunday at the Fairgrounds.
Joining the hometown peewee Express in the six team field will be entrees from Westport, Springbrook, Oshawa, Peterborough and West Carleton.
“It’s an early season tournament for us to compete against teams from all across eastern Ontario,” said Stephen Paul, coach of the U14 Express. “It’s a great opportunity for us to warm up to the season and really get started on the process of being prepared for that elimination tournament the last weekend of June.”
Napanee will also be the site of the OASA U14 Boys Elimination Tournament, June 28-30. All of the teams at this weekend’s tournament will compete at eliminations, as well as others from western Ontario. Final details are still being confirmed, but early on it looks like a top three finish at June’s eliminations will be required to represent Ontario at the U14 Boys Canadian Fast Pitch Championship, to be held July 27-31 in Saskatoon, Sask.
“We want to play as many games as possible to peak at the right time,” Paul said of this weekend’s upcoming tournament. “It’s also nice to play some of our competition as well and get an understanding of who they are and things we need to do to improve over the next month and a half to prepare for that big (eliminations) tournament.”
Six players on this year’s peewee Express team captured silver at the national U14 level last year while the rest of the roster is made up of players who last season earned silver at the provincial U12 level.
“They’re highly skilled ball players and a fun team to coach,” said Paul.
Napanee will open the tournament with a 9 a.m. game against Westport. They’ll follow that game up at 1 p.m. when they’ll take on West Carleton and then face Oshawa at 3 p.m. On Sunday they open with a 9 a.m. game against Peterborough and will wrap up with a 1 p.m. first pitch against Springbrook.
Along with this weekend’s tournament and the June 28-30 U14 qualifier, Softball Napanee will also host a U10 and U12 boys tournament June 8-9, a U16 boys tournament June 15 and 16 as well as the U14 girls PWSA qualifier July 19-21.
Along with major tournaments, the Fairgrounds will host a packed schedule of league games throughout August. The teams range from U8 up to U19, with over 50 players registered under the age of 10.
“That speaks to the strength of our programming and the strength of softball in Napanee,” said Paul, also a member of Softball Napanee’s executive. “Those are players in a few years that will be competing to go to a Canadian championship as well. We’re well positioned with a great developmental program.”