Adam Prudhomme
Editor
Napanee’s AFW U20 Express will kick off a busy season of fast pitch with their second annual Men’s Open Tournament, May 19-21 at the Fairgrounds.
The tournament will serve as a ‘spring training’ of sorts for the participating clubs as it’ll be the first competitive game action for players after a long winter.
“We’re calling it the annual Early Bird Tournament,” said Express coach Cory Brooks. “Gives people a chance to knock off the rust and the cobwebs and get out and have a tournament before the higher end tournaments, the ones that mean something towards the elims and provincials.”
Last year Napanee claimed third at the tournament, finishing behind the Owen Sound Selects and the Kingston Axemen. While all teams are trying to win, the simple act of getting back on the diamond and facing live pitching is the main objective.
“I use it as basically to kick start the season, team bonding and fun weekend in Napanee for the guys that end up staying with our program and introduce them to the new shirts and jerseys, get everything all handed out then,” said Brooks.
Last year’s event was a major step forward for softball as a whole, as it was one of the first tournaments in the province to run after the pandemic. With this year seen as more of a ‘normal’ year, there’s a lot more options for teams to choose from when mapping out their tournaments for the season. That can mean attracting teams willing to come out to the eastern part of the province can be a challenge at times, with so many other options towards the west.
“All the tournaments that were being run around the same time or the weekend before or weekend after are now back up and running,” said Brooks. “Right now we’re at eight teams, which is still a great turn out, but we’re hopeful for more. I’d like to deal with 10 teams, that seems to be easy to work with and everybody’s playing lots of ball. Too much ball (that early in the season) makes everybody sore too.”
So far teams from Cobourg, Northumberland, Kingston and Quebec have committed, with a few more having expressed interest.
For local fans, the May 19-21 tournament will serve as a nice appetizer for the main event, when Napanee once again hosts the U20 Canadian Fast Pitch Championships, Aug. 15-20. This will mark the second straight year the Express will play host for nationals, coming off a silver medal finish in 2022, falling to the Tavistock Athletics in last summer’s final. The Express are once again expected to be a contender, returning all but two players from last year’s club with the added reinforcements from the graduating bantam team, which also earned silver on the national stage last season.
“The hardest place to win is at home,” said Brooks. “Some would say that we lost and we didn’t win gold, in my coaching experiencing I would say that we won silver. Yes we were the best team during the week last week last year. But I would say to you last year that Tavy was the best team on the weekend. That’s why that tournament’s so much fun is that you have to be the best team all week. You can’t just be the best round robin team, you’ve got to be the best in the playoffs as well.”
Teams looking to get in on the U20 Men’s Open in May can contact BrooksCory8@gmail.com or call Ryan Reynolds at 613-453-8224. The entry fee is $600 and the tournament is open to men’s, junior and midget teams.
Connor Brooks. Photo by Adam Prudhomme.
-Napanee’s Connor Brooks and Riley Manion will represent Team Canada at the 2023 WBSC U23 Men’s Softball World Cup, April 15-23 in Parana, Argentina.
Team Canada enters as the second seed and is in a group that includes Japan (third seed), New Zealand (seven), Venezuela (eight), Team WBSC (21) and Israel. A total of 12 teams will take part in the tournament.