The Big Guy Lake Junior Blazers have taken their lumps as a first-year team in the Spruce City Men's Fastball Association.
That's to be expected for a group of teenagers taking on grown men on a nightly basis. Still, the Blazers have won a few on the diamond at Spruce City Stadium and their 8-13 record is quite respectable for a fifth-place team in the five-team league.
That bodes well for the Blazers this weekend when they take on their under-21 peers in the 10-team junior division at the Canadian Native Fastball Championship. Big Guy Lake expects to a land a trophy fish when all is said and done at the three-day tournament, which start today at eight city ballparks.
The Blazers will face the FHQ Chiefs of Saskatchewan in their opener today at 11 a.m. at Ron Wiley Field (Carrie Jane Gray Park).
Manager Sheldon Bjorklund and head coach Darrell Gervais recognized the need to form a new team to compete provincially at the junior B level, but with only12 players to work with, the Blazers have struggled to field a full lineup every game, mostly due to work commitments. They will be out on full force this weekend.
"It's been a long year but this is new to a lot of the kids, they've never seen any of the tournament like they're seeing," said Bjorklund.
"Hockey is so much more organized and the talent pool is a lot thicker, so we've been struggling to field nine guys the last two weeks because of the weather and guys starting work and hockey camps have started.
"But we're planning on having this team together for a few years and we're going to use this weekend as a building block."
The core of the team that plays in the men's league - Jerricko Prince, Ethan Abraham, Nolan Williams, Austin Haugen, Jarrod Tom, Joel Patsey, Jeremy Gervais, Brevin Gervais, Devin Sutton,
and Jarin Sutton - will have some reinforcements to work with to help their chances of walking away with the $5,000 first-place cheque.
Jeremy Frame is the only Blazer who is not of First Nations or Metis descent. He has prior commitments this weekend so Bjorklund didn't have to apply for an exception to allow Frame's eligibility this weekend.
Several of the Blazers - Prince (the team captain), Abraham, Williams, Haugen and Patsey, are relatively new to fastball but they're good athletes and have proven to be quick-learners, a product of the team's commitment to practicing. Five of the team - the Gervais twins, Sutton twins and Patsey - played midget rep hockey last season and their competitive attitudes and commitment to training has been infectious.
"Our leadoff hitter, Jeremy Gervais, never played much ball since Little League and what we find from hockey is their competitiveness and that's what we like about them," said Bjorklund.
All five of the new recruits are from Saskatchewan and all five have big-game experience at provincial, Western Canadian or national championships.
Pitchers Wacey Strongeagle and Keltin Cyr will be bringing some help at catcher with R.J. Cyr (Keltin's cousin) making the trip to Prince George. Hyland Poitrais will find a spot in the Blazers' infield and catcher/first baseman Brandon Thomas, who won a junior native national title last year in Winnipeg with Lenny's Selects of Prince George, should figure prominently in the batting order for Big Guy Lake.
"It's just by luck we got (Thomas), he just became available the last few days," said Bjorklund. "He's here to hit the ball. He has lots of experience. He's the only one on the team that's 21."
Bjorklund has high hopes for his team this weekend and expects home field advantage will help them score a few runs. The Cross Lake (Man.) Pirates and Prince George Junior River Kings are the early favourites. The River Kings open today at 2:30 p.m. at Ron Wiley against the winner of this morning's Morictown-Ochapaway game.
"Realistically, I would say if we place (in the top three) we'd be happy, but with our pickups we want to be in the final," he said.
The 77-team, five-division tournament starts today at 8 a.m.
The Prince George Senior River Kings play their first game tonight at 8 at Spruce City Stadium against today's Ashcroft-Sitsika game.
The Prince George women's team - the Northern Selects - are part of the 22-team women's division. The Selects play the Brown Eyed Beauties today at 10 a.m. at Freeman Park's Chuck Cawdell Field.
Randy's A's of Invermere, which includes four Prince George players - Chad Ghostkeeper, Colin Ghostkeeper, Evan Potskin and Chris Fulton - begin their quest for the master men's title tonight tat 7:30 against the SKO Vets.
