Little League revival in southern Alberta

Times Photo Submitted

By Cal Braid
Southern Alberta Newspapers
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

 The Major A Little League Championships were held in Taber during the first weekend of August, and the local Norcrest team was in the spotlight. It was a turn of events that spoke to the favour that youth baseball has garnered across southern Alberta over time.

   Norcrest Little League consists of teams from eight southern Alberta communities: Taber, Bow Island, Coaldale, Enchant, Foremost, Milk River, Picture Butte, and Vauxhall. A house league runs through the spring, after which players have a chance to compete for a spot on the tournament team in the summer. That team builds its tournament roster with selected players from the eight communities and was the only team from southern Alberta to compete at this year’s Major A Championship tournament. As of now, two Major teams and one Minor team compete in tournaments.

  Carin Jensen, the vice president of Norcrest, told the story of how the little league in the eight communities was revived. Going back to 2013, a lack of volunteers for the board eventually led to a lapse in the league’s society status. When Jensen assumed the role of VP in 2022, she obtained notice from the Government of Alberta that Norcrest’s society status was removed in 2017 after the required financial documents weren’t filed on an annual basis.

  “I am not sure of the exact date but one of our more recent board members was in attendance at the annual general meeting where the vast majority of the board, from 2017 or 2018 I think, resigned,” Jensen said. “Jason Tolsma (former president), at that time, had things thrown at him and he was left to pick up the pieces the best that he could. I can vouch for him that it is a big job and I think he had very little direction given to him from the district that Norcrest belongs to.”

  “That is the impression that I was left with,” she said, piecing together the backstory. “Jason then tried to do all that he could to keep Norcrest running and luckily the eight individual communities each had their community programs running and Norcrest was the gathering point for all the programs to have championship tournaments at the end of the house league season and to form summer teams for the competitive tournament or travel summer baseball program.”

  Nevertheless, Tolsma still had trouble finding board members. Jensen said he did as much as he could on his own to keep things going. “In that sense, Norcrest never shut down and I guess that is a testament to the resilience of the league. We don’t give up.”

  Jensen found out about Norcrest when her nephew played with one of the teams in 2018, and in 2019 she inquired about summer baseball and found that her son, Ryley, could try out for a minor team. “That’s when I met Jason and learned a bit more about the summer program. That is also the year that Ryley and our family became baseball enthusiasts and have never looked back,” she said.

  COVID knocked out the 2020 season, but then in 2021, Ryley was part of a summer Major AA team that ended up winning provincials in what she called “a Disney-movie style season.”

  “After that season when my husband and I managed the summer team, I was encouraged by some of the parents to get involved with Norcrest and make sure that kids would continue to get opportunities to play and succeed. I attended the AGM in March of 2022 and was elected as vice president. I took this as an opportunity to learn about the league and help out wherever I could,” she explained.

  Following the 2022 season, Jensen continued to learn more about Norcrest and identified some areas that needed to be addressed to help the league continue. “I gathered information and outstanding invoices and we did our best to make sure we got caught up on all our bills and started to look to the future. At this time we started having fairly regular in-person meetings. The support was amazing from each community as they came together and helped fill in gaps for things that had been missing.”

  Since then, the league has earned recognition by winning the provincials in 2021, and news coverage and word of mouth let people know there was a league that the communities belong to. By 2023, Norcrest began work on getting its society status back. “We had more regular meetings with the board members from each community coming together to help build up the league and make sure the requirements that were set out were being fulfilled,” Jensen said. “We aren’t there 100 per cent but we are getting there! And imagine, our kids were successful without the structure that Norcrest needed; where will they be in a few years if we keep building?” The outlook is optimistic.

  She spoke with great enthusiasm about the league and encouraged everyone involved. “I commend each town for maintaining their programs over the past 10 years. It takes a lot of work and volunteer time and support to have a baseball program and each community has done an excellent job. There are other opportunities for baseball, but mostly for the older kids and out of Lethbridge.” But Jensen sees an opportunity rather than an obstacle.

  “Little League has a place inside our rural communities that introduces kids to baseball and I think it is Norcrest’s place to help build on that interest and find ways to help those kids who want to play more competitive baseball to have the opportunities to do so.”

  Both last year and this year, Norcrest players have joined a combined team out of Lethbridge for District 1 and represented the district at the national level for Little League Canada, competing to go to the Little League World Series at the Intermediate level last year and currently at the Junior level. The semi-finals began on July 30 and the Jr Bulls were the host team at the Junior Canadian Championships. Three players from Norcrest communities were on the roster.

 “I love what Norcrest Little League has given back to our family and the excellent experience it has been for my son, both within Norcrest itself and through introductions via Norcrest teams,” she enthused.

  It takes a team to build a team, and Norcrest Little League can chalk this up as a win.