UNITY — 75, 33, 5, 3, 1. For many, these numbers don’t mean a lot, but in the world of softball, these numbers mean everything.
The Unity Panthers hosted their eighth annual softball tournament over the June 13 weekend, where 75 softball games were played between 33 teams, including the five local U11, U13, U15, U17 and U19 teams. Over the three days, all the teams that travelled to Unity for the tournament left with one amazing ball memory.
Softball coordinator and coach for the U17 Panthers, Dean Wildeman, said the tournament was great and was happy to see and hear that everything ran smoothly.
“We had teams that came from Calgary, Alta., Moose Jaw and Regina then we also had some of the more local teams, like Macklin and Irma, Alta. We had 13 umpires hired for the tournament, five of whom were locals,” said Wildeman.
The U11 team placed fifth in the round-robin while the U17 team lost out in the semifinals. The three remaining teams advanced to the A finals, where they all had to settle for silver medals.
Wildeman was excited to share that more than 1,500 players, coaches, parents, grandparents and ball spectators came out to the diamonds over Father’s Day weekend to watch the tournament.
“It was great to have the Lions’ Club help us again with this tournament. It was great to have them at the gates as early as 6:30 a.m. and stay until later,” said Wildeman. He also said there were many compliments on the booth, the diamonds and the town.
“I heard so many great things about what the community had to offer our teams over the weekend. We already have three teams wanting to come back next year.”
The diamond crew, which is mostly softball dads, became a well-oiled machine after each game. Each crew member had a specific job to make each diamond game worthy in less than six minutes. According to Wildeman, the crew was able to get the job done in four minutes flat. Also helping over the weekend were the parents who helped sell 50-50 draw tickets, which were a guaranteed payout of $1,500 sponsored by Unity Motor Products. The lucky winner was none other than Wildeman’s mom, Marilyn, who attends the tournament every year, cheering on her granddaughter.
Wildeman said he is hoping to continue this tournament as it has become one of the big tournaments everyone is looking forward to.
