A group of youth who attended the tournament in Ontario. (Facebook/Kendall Mirasty)

By Derek Cornet

strong performance

LLRIB teams win national baseball championships in Ontario

Sep 26, 2024 | 5:00 PM

A group of young athletes and chaperones are back in La Ronge following a week-long trip to Ontario for a national baseball tournament.

The Fall Classic was hosted by the Jays Care Foundation, and it occurred between Sept. 16-20 in Brampton. In all, 24 ball players and eight chaperones from the Lac La Ronge Indian Band (LLRIB) travelled to Brampton to compete in the event.

Local Jays Care Foundation coordinator Percy Mirasty was among those who participated in the trip and he explained both teams the band sent performed strongly.

“It was a three-day tournament and our U11 team went undefeated all the way to the championship [and won 6-4],” he said.

“Our U14 team, we lost one game the first day and then from there, the team got stronger and the team that beat us, we wiped them out during the playoffs. Our championship game was 7-0. We beat File Hills-Fort Qu’Appelle region. Both of the teams we met in the final for both age groups were from File Hills.”

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Mirasty believes both teams performed as well as they did considering the Jays Care Foundation has been sponsoring baseball for several years in La Ronge. He also noted the LLRIB recently hosted the Tony Cote Summer Games and the athletes involved in baseball continued training for the trip to Ontario.

Kale Mirasty was named as a youth ambassador for the Jays Care Foundation. (Submitted photo/Percy Mirasty)

“They are starting to get more competitive, which is good,” Mirasty said.

“We are starting to get more kids involved and this past year, we had tri-community members from Air Ronge and La Ronge, so hopefully our program will expand more next year, and we will have more people from our tri-communities, plus from the five outlying communities of the La Ronge band.”

The cost of the trip was approximately $50,000 with the band’s Youth Prevention Program paying for airfare and accommodations, and Jays Care contributing $11,500. Each athlete was also given $500 in spending money and each chaperone received $750.

Aside from the tournament, the group spent time in Toronto and visited such places as the CN Tower, Eaton Centre, Hockey Hall of Fame and Ripley’s Aquarium.

“They were just thrilled. For a lot of them, it was their first time in a plane. As soon as we took off, you could just hear them. They were kind of in awe,” Mirasty added.

“Hopefully, we can start fundraising soon, so we can get ready for next year and take another group out to wherever they are going to host the Fall Classic next fall.”

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derek.cornet@pattisonmedia.com