By Derek Cornet

LLRIB hosting 2019 Youth Softball Championships in Prince Albert

Sep 21, 2018 | 2:00 PM

Prince Albert will be the location of the 2019 Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations Youth Softball Championships thanks to a winning bid by the (LLRIB) Lac La Ronge Indian Band.

The tournament is scheduled to occur Aug. 9 to 11, 2019, at the Max Power Ball Parks and the Crescent Acres Park. That’s according to LLRIB Director of Sports and Recreation Kevin Roberts who said the band’s bid was supported by Prince Albert Mayor Greg Dionne, Softball Saskatchewan Executive Director Guy Jacobsen and LLRIB Chief Tammy Cook-Searson.

“Although we have ball fields in La Ronge, they’re technically not softball diamonds,” Roberts said. “There would be a cost to us to upgrade them and we thought, if we moved it to the city, there would be a couple of advantages.”

The first advantage would be having access to world-class facilities like the Max Power Ball Parks, which hosted the Junior Mens World Softball Championships in July. Roberts also noted there are more places in Prince Albert to accommodate the number of athletes expected to attend, adding 70 teams competed at the 2018 Youth Softball Championships in Saskatoon last month.

With 11 months to organize the event, Roberts said he’s confident of the band’s ability to do so effectively. He believes that’s one of the reasons FSIN chose the LLRIB to host the tournament, as they’ve successfully hosted the Youth Hockey Championships and Youth Volleyball Championships multiple times in the last seven years.

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“We do have experience organizing these provincial-calibre events,” Roberts said. “We feel we’re a leader of First Nation recreation in Saskatchewan and we think a lot of First Nations look up to us. We try to set the bar ourselves for other communities to build from.”

derek.cornet@jpbg.ca

Twitter: @saskjourno