(Submitted photo/Koby Faubert)

By Ben Tompkins

Award Winners

Two local teens recipients of annual Softball Saskatchewan awards

Oct 28, 2021 | 6:06 PM

Softball Saskatchewan recently handed out their annual awards and two local teens have been acknowledged for their athletic ability.

Eighteen-year old Jaden Gaja of Carrot River, received the Female Athlete of the Year award, while 17-year old Koby Faubert of Wadena, received the Male Ed Mann Bursary award.

Gaja, has played softball in Carrot River, Melfort, Prince Albert (as a member of the Aces), Saskatoon (as a member of the Selects) and is currently playing NCAA Division 1 for the University of South Dakota.

(Submitted photo/Jaden Gaja)

Gaja said she feels blessed to receive such a prestigious award and credits it to the success of her team, as well as to where she grew up.

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“Obviously I’m super honoured to be chosen and I was super surprised. It just means a lot to have all my hard work recognized and just to be able to represent a small town like Carrot River. I had a lot of fun playing with the Selects this year, we had a lot of fun and we did really well, we were provincial champions.”

“Just going from playing all the levels from Carrot River league to Melfort, then P.A. and Saskatoon, it’s been an honour to essentially play with all the girls from the northeast and meet so many different people and grow and learn as a player.”

As to what’s next for Gaja, she said she has hopes of one day playing for the national team, especially after COVID ruined her shot at playing for the junior team.

“What’s next is hopefully trying for the national team, I was invited to the Junior Women’s National Team Selection Camp this year, but because of COVID, they weren’t going to worlds, so that team wasn’t made, unfortunately. I’m now too old for the junior team, so hopefully, in a few years try out for the national team and see where that takes me.”

(Submitted photo/Koby Faubert)

Faubert plays in the men’s division, his own age, with the U23 Winter training team for Canada Games and helps coach and put on pitching camps with the U12 team from Wadena.

He said he was extremely surprised to win this award when he found out, as he didn’t even know he had been nominated.

“I woke up and had an email from Softball Sask. that told me I had won the award,” he said. “It was quite a shock at first, I’ve never had an award like that, so it was pretty exciting and it was an awesome feeling all around.”

He also mentioned how nice it was to win an award like this after having spent so much of his life already at a ballpark.

“Most of my life has been spent somewhere on a diamond and it’s my favourite thing to do. It was just awesome to be recognized in this sport.”

Faubert is currently studying a Kinesiology/Education dual degree program at the University of Saskatchewan. In his softball career so far, he has won six provincial gold medals and a silver at the U19 Western Summer Games.

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Ben.Tompkins@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter @BenTompkins_8