2017 Season Begins
/ GPLS.ca | 11:45
2017 Season Begins
After plenty of winter months away from the diamond, opening weekend has finally arrived for Prairie League Softball.
With the ‘A’ division heading into their seventh season and ‘B’ division starting their third, it’s no small task to put together the opening weekend games, which feature across the two divisions, nearly 70 teams.
Morinville, AB. will host 26 teams for the ‘A’ division opening weekend, while Irma, AB. will host the fast growing ‘B’ division, which has grown to 35 teams this season. Add in a few guest teams and needless to say, it’s going to be a busy weekend in both locations.
Considering the GPLS had more humble beginnings entering their first season, the growth has brought many challenges, but also, a lot of talented softball.
“When we first started talking about it in 2010, it was a much smaller process,” said GPLS chairman Brett Harvie. “It was just to try and get the top teams in the province to play against each other. At first, we were looking to do a U14A and U16A division, and it’s just really grown from there from the number of teams in the league, to the geography in which we are pulling teams.”
It’s a tough job to host any of the GPLS’s weekend events, as their needs to be enough accommodation for hotels and meals for hundreds of families who will be involved in the weekend games that start Friday and end on Sunday.
So far, though, communities and organizations have managed to step up and host some of the largest weekends of the season, which has significantly impacted not only their community, but organization as well through fundraisers.
“It’s getting to be a real big endeavour,” said Harvie. “Groups typically look at six diamonds (or more) to run throughout the whole weekend. When you start doing the math on the number of families that are coming to any given host town, the economic impact is pretty significant. It takes countless man hours to successfully put off an event like this. They have seen really good financial returns, so it has been beneficial to them as well.”
Opening weekend is one the busiest times of the season, so it can be a challenge to keep your head above water with all the logistics and teams that make up the first three days of the season. But Harvie said, it’s a nice feeling once you get back out on the ball diamond and games are finally being played.
“It’s a reminded why you deal with all the administrative stuff throughout the off-season,” said Harvie. “At this time of year, it’s honestly crazy with that many teams starting their season. It’s always nice when you finally get out on a ball diamond and games are finally being played.”
If you have an interesting softball story to share, please email a.brethauer@gpls.ca
