(Melfort Minor Softball Association/Facebook)

By Ben Tompkins

National Championships

Melfort Spirit finish season top ten in Canada

Aug 12, 2022 | 4:52 PM

The U15A Melfort Spirit girls softball team is among the top ten best teams in the country.

After winning the provincial title back in July, they travelled to Saskatoon this past weekend to compete at nationals.

The tournament featured a total of 21 teams from across the country as they all competed to win gold.

Coach Kirk Kezema told northeastNOW it was an honour to represent the province as Team Saskatchewan 1, especially considering they did so at home.

“You are the provincial champions, so you have earned your right to be there, it was just really special for all of us… There’s no better place to play than at home, we were very grateful to be able to play in our own province.”

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The group played games against Ontario 2 (13-5 loss), Saskatchewan 3 (11-1 win), Quebec (3-2 win), Newfoundland (5-4 win), BC (5-0 loss) and Manitoba 1 (13-4 win).

That gave them a round-robin record of 4-2, which placed them 10th overall. They then played Manitoba’s provincial champions in round one of the playoffs and ended up losing that game.

While the goal was always to win gold, Kezema was still extremely proud of their result this season, which included their first ever A-level provincial title in program history.

“I think it’s humbling… Something like this does not come along without a lot of hard work,” he said. “The girls really stepped up and competed at a national level and we’re super proud of them… They obviously did extremely well placing in the top 10 in the nation.”

For these girls and this program, this year did wonders to recognize their success as they continue to grow and evolve into bigger things.

Kezema explained while expectations have only gotten higher, there still seems to be only one thing in their minds that determines the success of a player or team and it’s not necessarily the result.

“I think we just keep working hard. That’s kind of the philosophy we have in our program, work to win. Keep going the way we’ve been going and keep training these girls at this level and hopefully, success follows.”

Of the 11 girls on the team this season, they represented a total of seven communities across the northeast, which include Melfort (three), Tisdale (three), St. Brieux, Nipawin, Hudson Bay, Ridgedale, and Red Earth.

As for his final thoughts regarding this season, Kezema wanted to thank all the parents for continuing to show their support and efforts to allow these girls to play softball, because he knows without them, none of this would be possible.

He also knows they instill the great values this team brought, day in and day out.

“Our athletes, they’re just an amazing group of kids who kept coming in and bringing it. It was an absolute pleasure to coach this group this year.”

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Ben.Tompkins@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter @BenTompkins_8