Sporting brand new bright pink uniforms, the Cranbrook Banditas finally look set to take the field for the 2017 season. All they need now is the blessing of the city — and the weather forecast.
For now, Cranbrook’s new women’s fastball team is still indoors but with their final roster now finalized, the Banditas are getting anxious to see some game action.
“We’ve been practicing once a week since February [and] doing dry land training,” said the team’s founder Sarah Coles, who is also one of the team’s catchers. “The girls have been working hard [and have] really been progressing. We’re excited.”
Coles said that around 17 players tried out for the team and they made the decision to carry 14 of them last week.
“Every position was competitive. We’re fortunate that we had a lot of great athletes coming out,” Coles said. “Everyone has been working hard, so it was a tough decision to have to make.”
Now that the women have been selected, the team is just looking to ensure that everyone is in top physical condition and that their skills are fine-tuned.
“We’ve been working on getting back to the basics, getting our basic skills going down, different play progressions and we’ve also been working on getting back into shape as well,” Coles explained. “I’ve been working as a strengthening and conditioning coach as well. We’ve been training once a week to try to get our injury prevention and conditioning and everything up to speed.”
Although their schedule is not finalized, the Banditas already have several games to look forward to and they’re coming up quickly.
The team’s inaugural games are on Sunday, April 30 in Elkford where they’ll play a doubleheader. The Banditas will then host Elkford in Cranbrook on June 4 with another doubleheader.
During the May 27 weekend, the team will be in Sicamous for their first tournament and on July 28, they’ll compete at the ‘B’ Provincials in Richmond. The team is still also looking to book themselves into one more tournament over the summer.
As for their uniforms, bright pink t-shirts with their own take on the American Legion’s men’s Cranbrook Bandits’ logo, Coles is happy that they will stand out.
“You feel good, you look good, you play good.”
During the season, Coles hopes that the team can maintain their one practice and one dry land session a week schedule and also get in a few exhibition games against Elkford and some West Kootenay teams.
The Banditas also hope to run a few more fundraisers throughout the summer.
