They may be named the Storm, but their play this baseball season has been anything but stormy.
After a final tournament played in Estevan, Sask., over the Aug. 19-21 weekend, the U15 AA tiered Stettler Storm baseball team came home with gold medals around their necks.
Boasting one loss in 30 games played during the regular season, the Storm entered, and won, the provincial tournament in early August which qualified them for Westerns.
According to coach Clint Greiner, this is the second year in a row Stettler has been a dominant force on the ball diamond; however, due to the COVID-19 pandemic the team was not able to play at Westerns in 2021.
During the Westerns tournament Stettler continued solid play, finishing with a four-win and one-loss record.
Greiner says that one focus the team had this year was on “life lessons that you can learn from baseball,” and that if you learn those, you have a successful season regardless of whether you win or lose.
“One of our team quotes this year was: don’t be sacred to fail, don’t fail because your scared,” said Greiner.
Greiner credits a large part of the Storm’s success to the Stettler community and the support it generates.
To fundraise for tournaments this year, Greiner asked each of his dozen players to ask a different business in town for a $200 donation to help pay for travel, meal and apparel costs. The total fundraising effort resulted in just shy of $10,000 being raised.
“Community support brings community together,” said Greiner.
The team will be stopping by the Town of Stettler council meeting on Sept. 20. to have their success acknowledged as well. Greiner says a end-of-season party is also in the works.
According to Greiner, the future is bright for the team with at least five of the 12 players coming back next season and a solid group of younger players coming up from the lower levels of play.
A pair of players from Castor play on the team.
U14 Alberta Girls
The Storm weren’t the only Albertan ball players to have success out of province.
Playing for the U14 Alberta girls team, locals Hadley Prehn, Taylor Elines and Summer Greiner played their last tournament of the season over the same weekend in Winnipeg.
According to Coach Greiner, the Alberta team brought home gold as well, with a 17-5 win over Saskatchewan in the gold-medal game.
“Taylor Elines hit a walk off, inside the park, home run in the bottom of the sixth inning to mercy Saskatchewn,” said Coach Greiner.