by PAUL RAYNER

By the time the Stonewall Rams pulled their 6-0 upset over the Major Pratt Trojans to win the provincial high school fastball championship, Boissevain School and the community as a whole had another successful provincials on its hands.

The school hosted the Manitoba High School Athletic Association provincials on June 5-6. According to convener Keith Forsyth, it was a success, and a surprisingly easy one.

“It was just fantastic,” Forsyth stated. “There were no glitches. You always expect to experience bumps along the road. You just assume there will be more issues – issues with the teams, issues with the ball. But there were no problems. It went off really well.”

One reason for this, as Forsyth explained, was that the school had “all of it’s i’s dotted and t’s crossed.” The work done in preparation paid off.

“I took a lot of credit, but a lot of people did the work. The staff and the kids covered a lot of it and added their touch. The adopt a team, where the kids from middle school and primary presented bags of all kinds of things to the teams went over well. They had never seen that before. We did it right and we have people who care who do an excellent job.”

The diamonds were all well used and the teams came in with them in excellent shape. Forsyth said Landon White and a bunch of students did a great job of keeping them that way for the tournament.

It was a little cold, but Forsyth said that was not much of an issue.

“It was dry,” he said. “That’s the main thing. These kids play in Manitoba, so they know how to play in the cold. Last year, it was cold and rainy the whole weekend, so we were happy with it.”

If there was a damper on the weekend it was the tough fate of the host Bronco team. The local girls lost all three of their matches, including a 2-1 squeaker against Major Pratt, a 6-1 loss to Dauphin and an 11-0 drop to Vincent Massey. As Forsyth said, the provincials are five inning games, so there is not much time to make up for a bad inning.

What was disappointing was that the Broncos were out of the tournament by the time of the Friday evening banquet. Forsyth said it was partly the fault of the schedule, and he has his own ideas about improving the situation in the future.

“I would like to see a three day tournament. That’s a lot of ball for two days. I also think they should be seven inning games.”

“The kids were out before the banquet,” he continued. “It was the way the draw was set up. If you weren’t there by 5:30, you couldn’t see our kids play.”

He did not get to see a lot of the tournament himself, but said they were quick, exciting games played at a very high caliber. Many of the young women, he said, play on a higher level, and it shows.

All in all, it was a successful experience, mainly because of the people who did the work.

“We actually had to turn people away. We had no trouble with volunteers. The kids did a fantastic job and the adults and staff were volunteering. One thing in this community, when it’s a sports event, everyone helps out.”

They are planning to host the basketball provincials in 2010, and Forsyth said they are looking at doing the fastball again in a few years. It is not only important to the school, but also to the facilities, to hold events like this.

“We’ll look at doing it again in 3-4 years,” Forsyth stated. “I think it’s important to these diamonds to do these things. If you don’t have them, the facilities get left. The more of this, the better the facilities will be.”