Taber to host Little League tourney

By Cal Braid
Taber Times
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Norcrest Little League is all set to host the 2024 Major A Provincials in Taber from Aug. 2 – 4.  During the spring house league regular season, teams from the league’s regional communities compete for a division championship at the end of the season and in the summer, a short competitive season gives players a chance to try out for the tournament team. The players play for an opportunity to compete in the provincial and national championships.

 The league consists of teams from eight southern Alberta communities: Taber, Bow Island, Coaldale, Enchant, Foremost, Milk River, Picture Butte, and Vauxhall. Players, coaches, parents, umpires and volunteers all take the field to make the spring and summer tournament seasons a success. As many as seven teams will attend this year’s Taber tournament, with most travelling from Calgary or Edmonton. Taber’s Norcrest team built its roster with selected players from the eight communities and will be the only team from southern Alberta to compete at the Major A Championship tournament. Norcrest did not have a summer competitive program for a number of years but it was resurrected in 2021, with one Major team. As of now, two Major teams and one Minor team compete.

 Kevin Parenteau is coaching this year’s Major A team for the first time and will have his players ready to go. “We didn’t have much of a tryout, but they had a tryout for the Double A summer ball team. They had a Double A team but about eight kids weren’t going to make it, so we pulled up a couple of the better kids from Minor to make our Major A team.”

 He described the summer season as an extension of the spring league. “You have spring baseball which mostly is played in our towns. In summer, the kids who are a little bit more committed to baseball and want to take it seriously get together to form the summer ball team.” He said the tournament has been running since he was a kid.

 This year’s roster features several Coaldale players, and others from Milk River, Vauxhall, Bow Island and the Brooks area, but none from Taber. The downside of having a team composed of players from different towns is assembling them in one place for practices, but Parenteau expects to field a competitive team.

 Taber’s Dale Tilleman, a former ball player and performance coach who remains active in promoting youth baseball, said, “All Norcrest families can take pride in the improvements made to the playing surface, primarily by volunteerism, to allow for Taber to be a consideration for such an event. The Majors A group is primarily players aged 12 and under. Special recognition needs to be made to Carin Jensen, Dave and Amanda Kimota, Nick Tillsely, and Jake Ilcynski; their efforts to resurrect the Norcrest summer program have helped the development of competitive youth baseball in the Taber area. It is also important to note that Norcrest Little League jumped from 610 participants in 2023, to 740 in 2024. The revival of competitive programming has helped drive the increase. Kudos to all board members throughout the Norcrest area – their efforts at the grassroots have helped boost the growth in participation numbers too.”

 The league is part of District 1 in Little League Alberta along with Little League teams from Lethbridge, South Chief, and Chinook West. Many southern Alberta towns and rural areas place a high value on their youth baseball programs and strive to grow the sport and support the kids who love the game.