The Unity Panthers U19 softball team with their Western Canadian Championship bronze medals. (Submitted photo/Garan Rewerts)

By Martin Martinson

A Season to remember

Unity Panthers reflect on Western Canadians bronze

Aug 12, 2022 | 4:00 PM

The Unity Panthers U19 softball team are fresh off a season for the books.

Coming off a provincial championship in their home community as hosts of U19 BW provincials last month, the team has now added a bronze medal to their trophy case as well from the Western Canadian championship.

Attending this year’s tournament in Richmond, B.C., coach with the team, Garan Rewerts, said he and the coaching staff couldn’t be more proud of what the team was able to accomplish.

“We were pretty excited with the result; we went there to medal and that’s what we did,” he said. “Lots of players stepped up — it wasn’t just one or two, it was a team effort — and some girls got put in larger roles than they were used to and they really came out and did the job for us.”

Perhaps making the team’s accomplishment sweeter was their resiliency shown along the journey to reach the podium, overcoming a back-and-forth start to battle back in the tournament.

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The Unity Panthers team picture after winning provincials gold at home last month. (Submitted photo/Garan Rewerts)

The Panthers played nine games total on the weekend, only getting stronger as the tournament progressed. After finishing the round robin at 3-3, the team topped Manitoba 1 in a one-off tie breaker to advance to the playoff rounds.

From there, the Panthers also defeated Alberta 1 in the quarterfinals to punch their ticket to the semis against B.C. 1 on their way to the bronze medal.

“We went into Saturday with our backs against the wall, and we won three straight games and sent three teams home, so that was a big day for us,” Rewerts said of the proverbial turning point. “The girls came out and their bats came alive and we really played great defence.”

The coach said the Westerns medal serves as the cherry on top of what was already a memorable final year of ball for the team’s many graduating personnel, and the Unity softball program as a whole.

“A lot of these girls have won five or six gold medals at provincials and this was their last season, so we wanted to finish it off the right way,” Rewerts said. “Our goal at the start of the year was to win gold at provincials and we were able to do that.”

“This team had lots of good kids and parents and for one of our other coaches, Pat Risling, it was his 27th year coaching ball in Unity, so it was good to see him medal at Westerns as well.”

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Martin.Martinson@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @MartyMartyPxP1