(Martin Martinson/battlefordsNOW Staff)

By Angela Brown

Sports growing

Battlefords Minor Softball and Minor Baseball to be part of city discussions

Oct 8, 2021 | 10:00 AM

The City of North Battleford plans to have representatives from Battlefords Minor Baseball and the Battlefords Minor Softball Association to be part of any discussions with the city to ensure both groups’ needs are addressed.

Sheldon Wakelin, of Battlefords Minor Baseball, previously spoke as a delegation to city council to ask whether it was possible to have a fourth diamond created at the park on 19 Avenue in North Battleford where the Kinsmen diamonds are located since minor baseball membership has increased. No proposals or decisions were made on any matters. The organization was simply there to give a presentation.

Minor Baseball plans to meet with the city’s Leisure Services Dept. in the future to further discuss their requirements for more space.

Battlefords Minor Softball Association has now asked the city to be part of the conversation also, so softball’s needs could be looked at as well.

City Coun. Kelli Hawtin said at council’s recent meeting it would help to include both the baseball and softball groups in the discussions.

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“I think having all those folks at the table we could maybe find more efficiencies and maybe more space for youth to play ball in the community that we didn’t realize we could utilize,” she said.

Mayor David Gillan agreed.

“I think it’s very important that softball and baseball are in those discussions because they are co-users of some of the diamonds,” he said.

Both organizations growing

Battlefords Minor Softball president Darren Russell told battlefordsNOW he is happy the city wants to have both baseball and softball included in any talks since both groups are seeing a rise in membership.

“We love that both organizations are growing really well,” Russell said. “We hope we can make everything work in the Battlefords because we definitely don’t want to have kids sitting on couches when they could be out on the ball diamonds playing ball.”

Russell said the softball organization fully uses the facilities it is assigned in the Battlefords.

“At the beginning of every year, we take what the city and the town have given us for diamonds,” he said. “They have always been pretty good to us. We take a number, we split up into teams and we just try to make it work. So far it’s been good. Last year we actually had to run two practices a night on one of our diamonds to make it work.”

Russell said it’s not that softball has enough diamonds to fulfil their requirement, but they manage with what they have.

“If we lost a diamond we would be in trouble,” he said.

He added the last thing he would want to see is a decision made to benefit one organization at the expense of the other.

Russell is looking forward to having the two organizations sit down at the table, with all parties sharing their ideas for the common good in the Battlefords.

“I hope that softball and baseball can work together with the town and the city and figure it out,” he said. ”I’d like to help out as much as we can. I’m really glad that we are going to be involved in those talks.”

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Angela.Brown@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @battlefordsnow