The Lloydminster U17 female Liners softball team took part in the opening ceremonies at Driven Energy Legion Ball Park Friday morning to kick off the nine-team U17B softball provincials July 21-23. On the left is Ryann Rekimowich, who recited the athletes’ oath. Geoff Lee Meridian Source
The Driven Energy Legion Ball Park diamonds were buzzing over the weekend with a big softball tournament in town.
The Lloydminster Amateur Softball Association (LASA) hosted the U17B female softball provincials from July 21-23 with nine teams participating.
League president, Kara Johnston, spoke at the opening ceremony on Friday morning.
“Welcome on behalf of the Lloydminster Amateur Softball Association and the Lloydminster Liners. We are so excited to host you this weekend at our facility and in our community,” she said.
“It does take a village, so I have some thank-yous for sure. Thanks to the U-17 … to Brad and to our parent group for helping with this. Thanks to Wade and Marcel who will be here for hours all weekend in the sound booth. And thank you to all the athletes for all you’ve put into this season—this is your weekend, this is your showcase. Have fun, and enjoy the moment. Win or lose—these are the things you will take with you for the rest of your days.”
When the dust settled, the Lloydminster Liners didn’t advance to the finals but coach Brad Lake said they played well.
“Our performance on the field was respectable. We ended up going in the round-robin, winning one in three. So we ended up losing to the bronze medalists—Sylvan Lake, as well as the gold medalists—the Irma Tigers. So we definitely had a tough pool to come out of, but we’ve played both those teams throughout the year and had very good games. On a competitive level, we were there—just the mistakes came at the wrong times,” said Lake.
“I think, for us, being able to be the hosts of provincials—you get the excitement and the nerves and the hometown crowd as well as the opening ceremonies—we played right after, so I think the nerves played a little part as well. Handling adversity is always a challenge, but that’s why we’re prepping them, because they’re going to have more challenges in the years to come.”
Lake said many local businesses and volunteers helped make the tournament a success.
“Lloydminster is just an amazing community—Driven Energy Legion Ballpark, it’s a well-established facility and the teams are treated very well, so we really like to have the small-town feel and we get all hands on deck. We get sponsorship from Sobey’s—looking after the umps,” he said.
“Rolling Green Fairways donated the golf carts for the umpires as well. Culligan Water came up big this year and donated water for all the athletes in the dugouts. KoLabprint.com supplied the merchandise. A whole bunch of businesses just get behind youth sports and we thank them for that, as well as the Lloydminster Amateur Softball Association, for wanting to put on the event. I think we showcased what the Lloydminster community is all about,” said Lake, adding it’s the people that really make an event like this possible.
“Kevin Kusch was the master of ceremonies for the opening ceremony. We have our long-term announcers Wade and Marcel, and we definitely gave them kudos at the end of the event because they are just true ball fans and have supported softball and fastball in Lloydminster for over 40 years.”
In the end, the Irma Tigers came out on top, with an 8-7 win over the Calgary Warriors in the gold medal game.
Tigers coach Tausha Erickson said it was a “really good season” for them.
“We have four girls that are returning and the rest of the team are brand new. And so they came to us from other towns, and this is kind of a brand new team, and we had a really good start. We’ve just been on an uphill swing all the way through,” said Erickson.
“They had to work at this one,” she said about the final game.
“But going six games undefeated feels good. This weekend they played fantastic and played smart and they actually played nice and calm. It was a really good tournament; Lloyd did a really good job,” said Erickson.
