The Western Canada Junior AAA 21U Championships will bring the best baseball talent from Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba to Weyburn’s Tom Laing Park from Aug. 12 to 14.
The westerns will feature one Alberta team, two Manitoba clubs and two squads from Saskatchewan, including the host Weyburn PAR Contracting junior AAA Athletics, all playing for a coveted spot at the Baseball Canada 21U National Championships in Regina from Aug. 18-22. The Athletics are first-time hosts of the westerns this August, but this season will mark their third straight time playing in the tournament.
Bert Kauf, head coach of the Athletics, said they’re hoping for a better result this year at home after coming up short at westerns in Innisfail, Alberta, last summer despite playing their competition tough in every game. He said that result did build upon their performance at the 2014 westerns in Winnipeg and the feeling is this year’s squad will advance even further.
“It’s been a three year build,” said Kauf, noting his team has players from communities across the southeast including Carlyle, Midale, Weyburn and Handsworth among others. “Junior is an open category, so you can have players from all over the province. We’ve left a couple spots open for westerns to probably pick up some pitching. We’re probably going to pick up Tyson Black out of Yorkton. He’s going to the States with a scholarship (and is) a hard throwing right-hander. We picked up Kirkland Chalus from Carlyle. He played with the Twins last year. A lot of these guys are ex-Twins.”
Kauf said the junior program includes players from the same age group as the Western Major Baseball League (WMBL) that the Weyburn Beavers play in and is used as a place for local players to keep honing their skills between midget and senior ball. He said Weyburn junior baseball has been a staple for players from the southeast looking for a team to play on during the summer for many years and that history will be celebrated at westerns by having members of the 1996 Western Canada champion Weyburn Indians throwing out a ceremonial pitch at the tournament’s opening ceremonies.
“This year I’m hoping we’ll be right in the mix,” he said. “Hopefully we win a medal. The whole idea is to win at (westerns) this year, so we can go to nationals the week after.”
