The Princeton Minor Fastball team that is composed of six to ten year olds has been coached this year by Kyle MacMurchy, Shauna Hassell, and Grandpa Bob.
They have had a great season of learning more about the game. Some pitchers are being groomed as well as back catchers, and the coaches are keeping a close eye on those with great throwing arms and the big heavy hitters, keeping in mind the years to come. They have improved so much over the past month that even the games they have at practice are exciting to see. They practice with mostly all the rules and actually have some great plays happening.
On May 24, when 14 of the 15 on the team went to play in Summerland they actually split into two Princeton teams and they each played the Westside team and the Penticton team that was there. It is hard to imagine the Princeton team being the one to split up but it was a great opportunity for everyone to play specific positions and take pride in doing a great job. The pitchers pitched part of the time and it was great to see Elias Frost and Jaiden Mullin gain some confidence in their pitching.
Ten players made it out June 14 to High Noon Park in Kelowna out by the airport. There were six teams there including Enderby, Westside, Penticton, Princeton, Kelowna U10 and Kelowna U8 and each played 3 games. Most were 3 inning games but a few extra might have been snuck in, in the second game Princeton played. Princeton started the day in dreary weather against the Westside team they had previously played. Even though the coaches pitched for these games, (a little disappointing for our team as they have been practicing the pitching so much). The bats came out in the second game against the Kelowna U10 team and the talk was about all the great hits and “RBIs”. Although they had a long day, you could tell the kids were just about as excited for their third game as their first.
Although it was a complete sweep of wins according to most of the kids, by the coaches count they figured it was a 2 win, one loss event for our team so they should be very proud!
Coach Kyle has spent a great deal of time this year making contacts and hopes to have many more game opportunities next year as well as possibly hosting our own little tournament. Coach Kyle is thinking long term and figures with this group of kids the possibilities are endless with them possibly playing at the Summer Games in the next few years as well as the U12 Provincials. Next year Coach Kyle hopes to have the same Tuesday/Thursday regular practice as well as an extra pitching/catching practice each week.
