New Season More Growth
/ GPLS.ca | 9:58 A
New Season More Growth
Heading into the eighth season of Girls Prairie League Softball, an explosion of teams has seen the league grow to its highest number, well surpassing last season’s record mark of 71 teams.
This year, 104 teams across the A Division, B Division and guest teams will compete in the GPLS.
It’s that B Division that has seen the most significant growth since it started back in 2015, as last year due to no U18A league, the B Division had more teams in it than the A Division. With an extra division to play in, league officials are seeing even more communities get involved in the GPLS than ever before, offering their girls a chance to play very competitive softball across Alberta and Saskatchewan.
“We’re getting towns who haven’t been in the league before, so we’re pretty excited that the B Division is going to keep growing,” said GPLS chairman Brett Harvie.
Communities such as Unity, Calahoo, Irma, Olds and Elnora all included teams in last year’s B Division, with the Unity Panthers 03 U14B team going 8-0 in league player in a very competitive U14B Division, while Central Alberta, East Central Alberta, Unity and Olds battled it out to the end in the U16B Division for top spot all the way to the final weekend.
It’s been a perfect space for smaller communities who want to offer competitive softball to their players, but aren’t yet ready to make the jump to the A Division. While for larger communities, it offers a chance to have multiple teams so that girls continue to develop and don’t get left off a team if they don’t make their A Division team.
And it’s not expecting to slow down any time soon, as more and more communities are jumping on board and growing the game within their own ranks, which means adding B Division teams to their organizations.
“The B Division has really turned up the heat here,” said Vance “We’re expecting more growth in the B Division this year and it’s going to be exciting. It’s good to see the B side grow and developing as many girls as we can and get them to enjoy the game of softball. It certain is the area with the most growth in GPLS in the last couple of years.”
It didn’t happen overnight, and the B Division has been a work in progress before it got started three-seasons ago. A lot of phone calls and emails were made and registration came down to the last days before the season started, but now the GPLS is looking at what has been created and the teams involved and is continuing to keep their focus on building up the B Division in order to continue developing softball players in the prairies.
“When we added it, there was the question of, would it fly,” said Vance. “And the answer is yes. We’ve had so many teams involved, it’s just great to see. They have also developed some championship teams there that have gone on to win their respective provincials, so it has worked out really well.”
The B Division kicks off this year alongside the A Division in Edmonton on May 11-13, as the two divisions will come together for the first time to start the season in league history.
If you have an interesting softball story to share, please email a.brethauer@gpls.ca
