Share this Story: Sherwood Park Minor wins major Baseball Alberta award
Sherwood Park Minor wins major Baseball Alberta award
Sherwood Park Athletics standout Lincoln Roma was named Baseball Alberta's U-11 player of the year. Photo Supplied
The Park knocked it out of the park.
Sherwood Park was a common call-out during Baseball Alberta's recent virtual end-of-the-year awards, with plenty of athletes and builders getting some deserved recognition.
Sherwood Park Minor wins major Baseball Alberta award Back to video
Chief amongst the awards was the top honour of them all, as the Sherwood Park Minor Baseball Association (SPMBA) was named the Association of the Year – Large.
"It reaffirms that everything we have been working towards the last few years has been going in the right direction," said SPMBA president Darren Anderson. "Through the pandemic, our association was the only one in the province that showed continued growth, which is something, as president, that I am really proud of. Our numbers are still up. We have seen our biggest growth at the U-7 level, which really bodes well for the future."
It is the first time that the SPMBA has won the award since 2001.
"It has been a while, and I attribute winning now to a great board, group of volunteers and parents," Anderson said. "We just have an incredible group of people who are willing to do the work and do the best for the kids. When Baseball Alberta called to let me know, I was ecstatic. That was one of the goals that (baseball operations general manager Josh Bishop) and I talked about when I came on board as president, is that I wanted to make some good changes and build the culture here and win that award during the three years of our terms. We accomplished that a year early, which is a good feather in our cap."
There were several contributing factors in winning the award, including the successful renaming of all of the house league squads as the Archers and the smooth amalgamation with the Strathcona Minor Baseball Association and its Pirates teams.
"It was about the growth that we had shown, but also the resiliency," Anderson said. "We ran the Doc Plotsky tournament with 70-plus teams and more than 1,000 athletes when most associations didn't run tournaments at all. Ours went off without a hitch. We ran several successful provincial championship tournaments, including the top U-18 AAA event. But the biggest feather in our cap was the amalgamation. All of baseball in Strathcona County is finally under one umbrella now. Everything falls under one budget. It made a lot of sense."
All of this work was done during extremely challenging times, especially for minor sports organizations often given days or even hours notice of the latest health measure which would drastically affect their plans.
"It was tough on us, but even tougher on the kids," Anderson. "As a board, we were able to adapt and adjust to follow the guidelines. Seeing the looks on the faces of the kids as we were going through it… it was a real blessing getting in that season in last summer. It does help that our sport has some natural social distancing involved with nine players on a field not very close to one another."
Park baseball players honoured at year-end awards
Another major award on the night was the Lifetime Member Award, going to Sherwood Park resident Don Paulencu.
After starting his journey in the province's baseball scene as treasurer for the SPMBA in 2002 and moving into the role as president the following year, Paulencu sat on the Baseball Alberta board before becoming president in 2009, where he remained until 2016, and stayed on the board as past-president until 2020.
Baseball Alberta's Lifetime Member Award went to Sherwood Park resident Don Paulencu. Photo Supplied
Paulencu also represented Baseball Alberta as a Baseball Canada board rep for a number of years, and has received several Baseball Alberta awards in the past.
"I'm really honoured to receive the award and, naturally, it's a surprise," Paulencu said during the virtual ceremony. "I can honestly say it has been a very rewarding experience for me."
"Those in the baseball community know what Don has given, not only to the province, but nationally over the years," Anderson said. "It was nice to see Don get recognized."
Another major honour came at the U-11 level as Sherwood Park's Lincoln Roma was named the top player in the province in his age range.
"He had a dominant season," Anderson noted. "He has such a strong arm off the mound. He is really athletic and just a good kid all around. We are very proud as an organization to have any kid get recognized like that. His team won the provincial championship this year."
Sherwood Park Dukes catcher Kelan Polard was a Ron Hayter Bursary recipient. Photo Supplied
Amongst the other awards were two former members of the U-18 AAA Dukes receiving scholarships, as Kelan Polard was a Ron Hayter Bursary recipient and Chas Wheatley took home the Carl Linden Scholarship Bursary.
"That award is about overcoming adversity," Anderson said. "For the two years that he was on the Dukes, Chas was injured for most of it. He had surgery on his shoulder and was pretty much in recovery the whole time. But he showed up for every practice and always contributed and was a great teammate. Now he has a scholarship as a pitcher with a Division 1 school, the University of Iowa. He is just a great kid.
"Kelan is off to Wake Tech in Raleigh, North Carolina. He was always first to practice and worked extremely hard and took his studies seriously. If you could carbon copy what they Dukes program is all about, it would be about that kid there."
Finally, Ty Dechaine won the Gordie Wilson Memorial Award.
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