As a youth softball player, Jess Hudson remembers seeing Walter Colk on the diamond with his team.
"He had a reputation for winning," she said Sunday. "Everybody wanted to be on his team."
That was 20 years ago.
On Sunday, Colk and Hudson (now a head coach herself and second vice-president with Prince George Minor Girls Softball) were working side-by-side on the indoor turf at the Northern Sport Centre with a group of 13- and 14-year-old girls clad in lime green shirts, black pants and cleats.
Using a radar gun, Colk was clocking the windmill pitches being tossed by the six girls who were lined up, using the back catchers as their targets during try-outs for the Under-14B (peewee) team.
"They'll be throwing 50 miles per hour [80km/h] by the spring," said Colk as he stood behind the pitchers, C-level house league players. "And there are three potential catchers we're trying to tune up. Catching is probably the most difficult position of them."
A professional jeweller by trade, Colk, 65, has worked with P.G. Minor Girls Softball as a volunteer since 1983 when his daughter took up the sport and he began coaching her house-league team.
"I knew nothing about [the sport]," he said. "But I found I enjoyed it. I became a student of the game. The more you know, the better you became.
"I enjoyed seeing the kids succeed. That was my payment in full."
Now 31 years later, Colk has received one of Softball B.C.'s volunteer recognition awards for his dedication and commitment to the sport.
"It's long overdue," said Hudson of the provincial award. "He's been a mentor for everybody. Everybody looks up to him. He has the solutions to a lot of problems and issues we face."
It was Colk who created the more competitive rep B-level squads at the squirt, peewee, bantam, and midget levels - the Thunderbirds - in Prince George. Over the years, he brought in expert help too, including former national women's softball coach Mike Renney, who has been the head coach at Simon Fraser University since 1995.
Colk's squads have won the Western Canadian midget title and the provincial bantam banner.
Three years ago, he worked alongside Hudson on the U12C squad that won the silver medal at the B.C. championship in Trail.
"Coaching is what I enjoy doing," he said. "It's the satisfaction of seeing the girls compete for the rest of their personal and sporting lives. I wasn't just coaching on the field, I instilled a few goals and mental disciplines in them as well."
Of course, like every sport, P.G. Minor Girls Softball has experienced cycles of winning and losing. But Colk is optimistic this year.
"There are usually a group of teams that excel, and every couple of years we don't have that calibre," he said. "But when you have mentors like the midget and bantam Thunderbirds, you want to be one of them. The bantams have contributed to the success of this team [the U14Bs]. I think we're on the upswing right now."
Colk will continue working with the association right up until December.
Then, he's retiring from his job as a jeweller and as a volunteer with P.G. Minor Girls Softball.
