Playing baseball was perhaps inevitable for Niverviller Kennedy Sproule—it’s in her genes, she thinks.
“I started playing baseball because my dad played, and it was something I wanted to do because I wanted to be like him,” she says.
She started playing when she was only five, and now she plays for two teams: the Niverville Bantam team and the Manitoba provincial girls’ 14U team.
The two teams are quite different, she says. The local team is comprised mostly of boys, since most girls opt to play softball. The baseball team is open to girls as well, though, and some do take that route. The provincial team is an all-girls team, and members must try out for the highly competitive team.
Sproule, who pitches and plays second base, says she enjoys both teams. The Niverville team, she says, allows her to compete while having a lot of fun with local friends, while the provincial team gives her the chance to meet girls from around the province and play against other competitive teams—frequently boys’ AA or AAA teams, since girls baseball is still a growing sport.
That competitive level took Team Toba to Spruce Grove, Alberta in order to compete in the Western Canadian Invitational Baseball Championships from August 16–19. There, the Manitoban girls competed against teams representing Ontario, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia.
Team Toba finished round-robin play with three wins and one loss, losing only to the British Columbia Selects, and they went on to the medal round. There, they won their semi-final, losing the final match to the B.C. 15–6, ultimately bringing home the silver medal.
Sproule wasn’t able to play in the final game, though, because her arm was in a cast.
“During the semi-final game, I hit a double and I was running to second base, and I had to slide and landed on my arm,” she says. She was taken to hospital to have a cast put on, and then raced back to the ballpark to cheer her teammates on. “We parked on the other side of the park, so I had to run all the way to our diamond, and got there just in time to see the end of the game.”
The teenager, who aspires to one day play on the national girls baseball team, wasn’t the only local resident to be at the championships. Avery Pickering from St. Adolphe also plays for Team Toba, and at 12 years old she is the youngest member of the team.
“Avery is a valuable part of the team. She’s a bit younger but is very talented and has a lot of potential to grow in the game,” says head coach Dean Sproule, who also happens to be Kennedy’s father.
Coach Sproule played university-level baseball for four years in the U.S., and played a very brief stint with the Winnipeg Goldeyes. Now he enjoys spending time sharing his love of the game and helping younger players develop their skills.
“It’s a great opportunity to coach them,” he says. “I enjoy seeing them have fun and get along as a team, but I also enjoy the competitive level of play that they’re at. It’s a great group of girls on the team.”
