In less than two weeks, Bonnyville's competitive peewee, bantam and midget baseball teams will take to the field for provincial championship tournaments around Alberta.
On July 29-31, the midget Braves will travel to Rocky Mountain House to compete for a provincial title, while that same weekend the peewee Braves will head to Strathmore in search of a championship.
The bantam Braves will also compete for a championship the final weekend of July, but instead of crossing Alberta, the Braves will play in their own backyard at the new, yet-to-be-named field located behind the Acklands-Grainger building.
The three teams are heading into provincials with strong records and all three coaches believe their team has a chance to take the title and go on to represent Alberta at the Western Canadian Baseball Championships later this summer.
The bantam Braves will head into the provincial championship tournament with a very strong 14-4 record.
Coach Garth Campbell believes with a home field advantage, the Braves, along with Calgary and Okotoks, will be the favourites to win it.
“I think we'll be one of the top three teams,” he explained. “Playing at home is an advantage. We'll have our home crowd there and they will give our boys that extra push.
“The boys, the coaches and the parents, everybody is looking forward (to provincials).”
The midget Braves, who finished with an impressive 14-5 record after three rounds of provincial baseball, have a lot of depth in their lineup and coach Jim Church thinks this will be valuable when it comes to the eight-team, five-game provincial championship tournament.
“We're a very balanced team,” said Church. “It's a real tight tier I division, where on any given day anybody can beat anybody … It'll be the unsung hero that comes in and saves the day.”
The peewee Braves went 2-2 in the third round of provincial ball and finished the three rounds with an overall record of 8-4.
Coach Chris Church said the final weekend was more about preparing for provincials and allowing all the players to experience different positions on the field.
“All of our players have been improving this year and they've got to play at all different positions. You can really see the kids with less experience on the team improving the most,” explained Church.
She said the players are looking forward to the upcoming challenge at provincials.
“There will be a lot of competition there, but the kids are really excited to play.”
