It’s time to dust off the cleats and start swinging the bats as the Cranbrook Minor Ball Association gears up for registration for the next two weeks.
Boys aged 4-16 and girls aged 4-18 can sign up for the upcoming season—with a registration deadline of April 8th—at Players Bench or online at www.cranbrookminorball.net.
Cranbrook Minor Ball president Seana-Lee Coolbaugh said numbers appear to be up again this year—a trend that is continuing from last season.
There will also be rep tryouts for the Jr. Babe Wild team, which travels throughout the East and West Kootenays. The girls in the U12, U14 and U16 age divisions will also have tryouts for the Cranbrook Heat rep teams.
The organization is also hoping to host it’s first home tournament in the beginning of June.
Sam Steele
Ball Tournament
Cranbrook Minor Ball Association is also pairing up with a few other local baseball organizations to run the annual Sam Steele Ball tournament in June.
Junior Chamber International (JCI) Kootenay had taken ownership of the event for the last seven years, but decided to call it quits with their final tournament last June.
Cranbrook Minor Ball Association, along with other groups like the Rocky Mountain Bandits and the Home Run Society and a few others, have pitched in to pick up the slack.
“The Home Run Society was looking at it, but they didn’t have enough bodies, and its just kind of came out,” Coolbaugh said. “We all just started working together to get the best use we can, so it should be really good.”
However, JCI will continue to run the Balls of Steele bocce tournament.
Though the JCI’s won’t be officially running the show, Coolbaugh said they are always a phone call away for advice.
The new supergroup of local baseball organizations are hoping to take profits from the tournament and redirect it back into capital investments at ball parks in the city.
Coolbaugh said the team is creating a men’s and women’s division, and are working on scheduling more games for each individual squad that enters.
Other changes may include bigger cash prizes for the tournament winners, softball poker—where the winning team gets two cards, with the pot going to the team with the best hand—and an exhibition game featuring some of the younger local talent.
“We’re still putting different things together,” continued Coolbaugh.