The Luseland Ball Diamond hosted an Inside Pitch camp for all kids who were interested on May 3.
The Inside Pitch baseball camp has been around for over 20 years, coaching boys and girls of all ages and skill levels. They’ve been doing lessons for kids at their two main locations, Regina and Saskatoon, and travel to towns throughout the province to host full-day camps during the spring.
Throughout Inside Pitches’ time hosting these camps, they’ve been able to send over 250 players to play college baseball throughout Canada and the U.S. Typically, each camp hosts 30-40 players, broken up into groups of eight to 10 players per coach. This ensures that all kids get lots of instruction time and feedback throughout each camp. Luseland was no different this year.
This year, the Luseland Inside Pitch camp had roughly 40 participants, with four coaches coming from Saskatoon. The camp ran all day and athletes focused on a couple of different skills throughout the day. Before noon they had focused on throwing and pitching. In the afternoon, they focused on things like hitting, infielding and outfielding.
Despite the incredibly hot weather, camp attendees worked hard and were attentive to all the coaches who had come to teach them, playing their hardest with plenty of excitement.
The coaches themselves had been playing baseball for many years. Most of them started at an incredibly young age after being introduced to the sport by their families. Though they all said what kept them in the sport were the teammates and friends they made, the culture of the sport and the travel involved.
When asked what advice they would give to all players and coaches out there, they said, “Have fun, don’t take it so seriously, it is just a game. Also, try and build the culture of the sport in a way that encourages kids to pick up the ball and glove on their own, without coaches trying to guide them.”
This year is going to be a rather exciting year for Luseland, with 10 local teams playing this season. In addition to those teams, a brand-new 15UAA team will be forming out of Luseland, comprised of players from Unity to Saskatchewan River and in between. Ryan Faubert, president of Luseland Minor Ball, along with Lynn Cairns, the registry secretary, reported that there have been some renovations to the ball diamonds, recently completing the new batting cage, which saw its use in the camp. Faubert added that there are hopes to replace the backstop in future renovations.
Faubert has been president for the past two years, saying he got involved in it when his son started playing the sport, though he did play when he was younger. Cairns got involved five years ago for the same reason as Faubert, adding that coaching is her favourite part of volunteering.
Cairns reported Luseland has over 100 players registered this year, which is very impressive for the town. They have also added a few new volunteer coaches, which she says, “it’s exciting to see new faces helping out.”
Luseland Minor Ball will have a couple upcoming events to kick off this season, as the provincial tryouts take place on the May 10 weekend, various other camps can be expected to be hosted in Luseland as well, one such being the Luseland Minor Ball week, which will take place over the June 9 weekend.
