On short notice, a local group is submitting a bid to bring the 2018 Softball Canada junior men's national championship tournament to Prince George.
The group - including Randy Potskin, Harley Desjarlais and Chad Ghostkeeper - is working to meet an Aug. 15 application deadline. Potskin said he wasn't made aware the hosting rights were up for grabs until he attended the Canada Summer Games last week in Winnipeg.
Desjarlais said bids are also being submitted by cities in Ontario and Quebec.
"(Nationals) have traditionally been held in that area of the country so we're hoping that there will be a desire to move them over to B.C.," he said. "So we're quickly throwing a bid together with the help of some City of Prince George officials, just to ensure that we have proper facilities and proper sponsorships."
The tournament, for the under-23 age group, will be held in early August of 2018 and will likely stretch for six days.
Potskin, Desjarlais and Ghostkeeper were instrumental in landing the 2016 Native National Fastball Championships, which were regarded as a major success in all respects. Financially, Desjarlais said they injected $4 million into the local economy. Prince George also successfully hosted the Canadian senior men's championship in 2006.
Desjarlais sees the 2018 junior nationals as an opportunity to keep the momentum of the game moving forward in Prince George. Currently, the city is home to some of the top young players in the country - guys like Nicholas Potskin, Tyson Ghostkeeper and Jerricko Prince. All three represented B.C. at the Canada Summer Games, as did regional players Brandon Larsen (Burns Lake), Shayne Forshner (Fort St. James), Brendan Alec (Burns Lake) and Logan Groves (Smithers).
"(Hosting in 2018) would also position us to host other events in the future," Desjarlais said. "We also have a secondary agenda of leaving a legacy for the young kids to be able to play ball, such as the Lenny's Selects (who won a native national title in Edmonton last weekend) and the Big Guy Lake Blazers, just to maintain interest for them. We want to keep the game alive for the kids and we're doing it for the community here. There still is a lot of interest in fastball in Prince George, unlike a lot of other places. We've managed to keep going so we'd love to be able to bring this to the fans of northern B.C."
