The Moose Mountain Mavericks will be hosting a baseball clinic for children ages 8 -18, coaches and parents at the Redvers ball diamond on Saturday, May 10.
Luke Brady, coach of the 17 and under AA baseball team says players from their team will be helping with drills and techniques.
"We are going to touch on all the basic skills of baseball, throwing, catching and hitting. Also,we aregoing to teachthings likebase running, pitching,fielding and sliding," he said.
"This will be a time for kids who want to learn the basics of baseball and also for kids who are already skilled and looking to learn how to better themselves."
Brady said the idea for the clinic started with Amber Sylvestre, president of Redvers MinorBall who asked him and fellow coach, Blaine Kovach if they wouldlike to run abaseballclinic for kids to learn the fundamentals of the game. They jumped at the opportunity as Sylvestre said she noticed there were no camps for baseball. The clinic will also serve as an opportunity for the Mavericks to raise money for hats,uniforms and entries into tournaments.
Blaine Kovach is excited about the clinic and says there is no better feeling than coaching and giving back to the game that has given him so much.
"I get to pass the knowledge I have learnt and continue to learn to these kids and help show them the proper way to play the game that will help them reach the next level. I am only in my second year of coaching my own team but have helped coach many teams before this. Being a part of the summer games team, bantam zone selects and recently coached a selects team down in Arizona has opened my eyes in a whole new way from a coaching point - than from being the player on the field," he said.
"There is so much more that goes into the game than hitting the ball and throwing it, knowledge of how a player reacts to a certain situations or figuring out a small mechanical issue that may be throwing off the kids swing is only a few things that are always running through my mind now being a coach"
For Luke Brady, teaching the game is awesome and said last year, watching how players picked up the game and came together as a team was unreal.
"These kids are from different towns, all of them have played against each other in either baseball or other sports. The kids on our team learnt how to become a very close team and play some very good ball," he said.
"Baseball is a sport that can create a very strong comradery between players and coaches and this is no exception. We have a lot of fun on our team and we also play some very good baseball. I learned how to play baseball from people in Carlyle and I learned so much from these guys about baseball."
The Moose Mountain Mavericks play in the Saskatchewan Premier Baseball League which consists of 16 teams from across the province. Brady said the team pulls kids from Redvers, Lampman, Carlyle, Wawota, Alida, Grenfell, Kennedy and Oxbow. And the team currently has four coaches, himself, Blaine Kovach, Stacy Schill and Mackenzie Lamontagne.
This is the team's second year in the league with 14 players and they will be competing in tournaments in Medicine Hat, Saskatoon, Kindersley and provincials in Wawota.
Kovach said it takes a lot to get the process of organizing the team going as they have to reach out to many small communities in the area.
"We need so much help from the kids spreading the word to their friends in those different towns. We have been very fortunate to have as much interest as we have had. For our first year we pushed very hard to try and build a strong foundation that would last for years to come," he said.
"After just one year we have grown again as word gets out about our program and it's great to see. We are trying to keep baseball going in our small communities and show that the south east part of the province has high caliber ball players who could be playing college ball one day and get a great education doing it."
People interested in participating in the clinic can register by contacting Luke Brady atlubrady@nal.caor 306-575-8626 or Amber Sylvestre at 306-452-7704.
