When only 14 boys signed up to play ball in the Spruce City Minor Boys Fastball Association, that created a bit of a problem for Prince George Timberwolves midget team coaches Mitch Hogh and Richard Boomhower.
How do you prepare the boys for the midget C provincial playoffs when there's no other north central interior team to play? The answer was only a few city blocks away from their Ron Wiley Field home diamond at Freeman Park, home of the Prince George Minor Girls Fastball Association.
The PGMGFA midget/bantam house league has 33 girls playing on three teams and for the past two months they've been meeting the boys on the field in exhibition games. Those games are gearing up the guys to play in this weekend's midget C tournament in Surrey, while the girls, known as the Prince George Thunderbirds, are refining their skills for the midget C provincial tournament July 8-10 in Port Alberni.
It's a win-win situation for players of both genders, giving them both the opportunity to represent Prince George on the provincial field of play. Without that spirit of cooperation between the leagues, neither team would be going after B.C. banners this year.
"All the girls teams have good pitchers, and that makes a difference," said Hogh. "As long as you're getting good pitching, things happen. If you don't get good pitching then nobody's doing anything with their bats, it's just walk, walk, walk. So it's good for us.
"The girls teams are also good fundamentally and they play the ball very well. The difference is the boys can hit it farther. These kids get good games, it's well-matched."
The T-wolves midget (under-18) boys team is made up of three midget-aged players, three peewee players and eight bantams.
The Prince George midgets captured provincial C bronze last year, and the year before, when there was no local team, some of the players joined a Williams Lake team that won the provincial tournament. Catcher Branden Edwards, 16, his 17-year-old brother Gabe, and first baseman Braeden Boomhower, 17, are the only holdovers from those two provincial medal-winning T-wolves teams.
"Not many people play softball anymore but it's fun," said Branden Edwards. "We play the girls and it's not fast, like it will be in provincials, but it's still good to get everybody warmed up and ready and we're learning how to hit. It's still competitive, but not what we're used to."
As the oldest player on a team ranging in age from 13 to 17, Boomhower relishes his role as a captain.
"You have to act like a leader because they're young kids and they're newer to softball and don't know as much, so you have to kind of guide them around," said Boomhower.
Prince George teams have been on outdoor fields for only two months and that becomes a disadvantage when facing teams from milder climates, where the season starts earlier. Braeden Boomhower knows the pitching at provincials is going to be tough to hit and he just wants his younger teammates not to get stressed out about it.
"Just have fun," he said.
Edwards' younger brother Zack pitches and the T-wolves have picked up pitcher Dayna McKinney from the girls midget league for the provincial tournament. Zack, 15, appreciates having the girls teams to play and says it wouldn't be much fun otherwise.
"It's good practice for provincials - if they weren't here we wouldn't have anybody to play against," he said. "I feel we'll do decently well at provincials if we get our bats going and are pitching perfectly, which is all on me."
It's been years since the Thunderbirds program last sent a team to compete in the C provincial tournament and most of the players on the team have never been to a B.C. tournament. T-birds coach Cliff MacLachlan predicts his travel team will be better prepared, having played the boys team a few times.
"This is good for the girls, it gives the girls perspective playing somebody that's different than what they're used to playing," said MacLachlan. "If you don't help each other out then nobody plays and nobody has fun."
Mandi Watt, 18, plays shortstop for the T-birds and says she likes taking on the boys, who have a more aggressive style of play than what she's used to in the girls house league.
"The boys play way harder - they're making plays and they get us on our toes. It's just completely different playing boys than girls, they're at a whole different level than us," said Watt,
Watt played on T-birds rep teams for a couple years and has played in B provincial tournaments. She felt the sting of playing more experienced teams from the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island and says her team will likely encounter similar opposition in Port Alberni.
"Ball is completely different down there, they have a way longer season, they have way more under their belts, but it's a good atmosphere and it's cool to be in," Watt said. "It's cool to watch that level of ball, even when it's your team getting (mercy-ruled)."
T-birds pitcher Ameryllis Braun knows they will be provincial underdogs but that doesn't bother her. At 19, she's in her last year of minor ball and she's looking forward to her first kick at the provincial can before she joins the women's league.
"Well be hitting off some pretty fast people and I might get drilled in the face when I'm pitching but it will be worth it," Braun said. "I like playing the guys because they can actually make plays and make the effort to get us out. We wish we all had more aggression."
