OTTAWA – When it comes to grass roots development in baseball across Canada, Manitoba has been one of the leaders in that category for the last few years.
The Rally Cap program has been a resounding success in the province, which has translated into a boost in registration numbers across the province.
“Some of our local associations are reporting that there will be an additional 20 teams at those levels,” says Executive Director of Baseball Manitoba Morgan de Pena.
Other provincial associations have had difficulties implementing Rally Cap because of the old school mentality of some of the local association members, but in Manitoba the program has been a relatively easy sell.
“For us it was simply a matter of people seeing it in action,” says de Pena. “Once they saw it, they were just floored by how good it is for the kids.”
The development of girls’ baseball has been on the upswing in Manitoba for the last few seasons as well. Baseball Manitoba will host its second Girls Baseball Day this season, certain local associations will be fielding all-girls teams and there is even talk of an all-girls mosquito league in Winnipeg.
“We’re even discussing having an all-girls tournament at the mosquito and peewee levels for teams across the province,” adds de Pena.
The baseball season has started off the right foot this year with an assist from an unlikely source as Mother Nature has provided some unseasonably warm weather across Manitoba.
The warmer climate has allowed teams to hold practices outdoors on the diamonds a month ahead of schedule. Traditionally, Manitoba is still covered in snow at this time of year.
“Because of this warmer weather, people are thinking about baseball a lot earlier and things are getting started a lot earlier,” says de Pena.
Baseball Manitoba is also in the process of bringing on a Program Coordinator to oversee the development in high performance in the province, an area de Pena admits has been lacking the last few years.
But with the continuing growth at the grass roots level in Manitoba, and retentions of those new players at the core of its growth, the high performance side of the equation will benefit from the influx of talent.
