There's no age limit on playing sports and having fun, and one Stettler ball player, at 74, continues to push his boundaries.
For the past 12 years, Bozek has travelled to St. George, Utah, for the Huntsman World Senior Games in October.
The games, which celebrated its 30th anniversary this year, invites people in the over-55 age categories in various sports to attend and compete. Everything from baseball to cards to lawn bowling factor into the event, which is geared towards keeping seniors active.
Bozek plays slo-pitch baseball and competes in both the 65-plus and the 70-plus categories. He is a member of the Pals and the St. Albert Muggins respectively.
For Bozek, playing baseball is about more than the game itself, though he passionately loves his baseball.
"It's a social sport," he said. While other activities, like walking, would keep him in physical health, he thinks those are "solitary" pursuits and they don't interest him. He'd still play hockey, he said, but his joints don't put up with skating as well as they used to.
Bozek said he's been playing ball since his youth, and fell in love with the New York Yankees the first time he saw them play on the television when he was about 11 years old. He said the older generation of Yankees, like Yogi Berra, were his idols when he was younger.
The spirit of baseball is vital to enjoyment of the sport, Bozek said, and he noted that this year's Cubs victory – one that ended a 108-year pennant drought, was one of the best baseball World Series he'd ever seen.
"I was so excited for them," he said when the Cubs won in extra innings against the Cleveland Indians.
"You couldn't help but root for both teams," he said. "Both had a long drought. And both teams played well."
There was no gold medal for Bozek this year down in St. George, though. The Pals were eliminated in early tiering, and though the Muggins played further into their tiers, they were eventually pushed into the bronze medal category.
The teams play several games of ball in a round robin format before they are placed in various tiers of play. Bozek's teams were both B teams, though he said he felt several A teams ended up seeded with them.
The Pals, Bozek's 65-plus team, started off the final tiered tournament in the first week with a win against Brock's Crocs, but were knocked out of the top tier by the Wenatchee Merch in their next game. That put them in the bottom branch of the tier, which played more games to reach the finals than the top.
"That's a long climb back up," he said. "We did it once, with Pals, when we won in 2012."
Their defeat pitted them against the Suburban Auto team, with several wins necessary to work their way back into the finals, but unfortunately for Pals this year, the team was beaten in their third game and knocked out of the running for a medal.
The Muggins had better luck in the second week of the games, knocking down the Raiders and the Northern Slammers to make it to the semi-finals. There, they played the Lethbridge Bandits and lost, securing the bronze medal and setting up the Bandits and the Sonoma Fog for the silver and gold medals. Unfortunately for the Lethbridge team, the Sonoma Fog beat them, relegating them to silver and keeping the gold out of a Canadian team's hands.
Still, medals aren't everything, Bozek noted. In his 12 years, he's only brought home one gold, a handful of silvers and this, his first bronze.
The memories and the example he sets for others, on the other hand, is much more important to the Stettler man.
One of the rooms in his home is dedicated to his mini-baseball museum, where he keeps the mementos from his many years of travelling and baseball.
Team photos from the Pals and Muggins, medals from various tournaments, newspaper clippings and lanyards from the years he's gone to the Huntsman World Games make up only part of the collection.
He also has signed balls, baseball bats and other collectibles from training camp games and actual games he's attended.
More, though, Bozek wants to send a message that there's no reason to stop playing sports and being active.
"So many people, they get older, they quit moving," he said. "I'm 74 and I still play."
He said the ethics learned in sports – a responsibility to others, punctuality, and level of effort – all translate across life and aren't limited to the game itself.
"I played, and my kids played, and my grandkids play," Bozek said. "And I can see that ethic in them."
Though it will be another year before the Huntsman Senior Games return to St. George for its 31st year, Bozek intends to be there, fit as a fiddle and ready to chase the elusive gold medal.