Barrhead was not successful in its attempt to form a junior baseball league team.
As reported April 4, the Barrhead senior men’s North Central Alberta Baseball League (NCABL) team, the Orioles, had folded due to a lack of players and that its younger players were attempting to form a 21-and-under Junior AAA squad.
Steve Hunter, last year’s midget team and would-be junior manager, said it doesn’t look like there is enough interest.
“We had 10 guys sign up, but you really need at least 10 to 14 players to make a go of it at this age level, just because of work commitments,” he said.
One of the reasons why Hunter believes they weren’t successful is because many players in that age group at this time of year are still out of town pursuing their post-secondary educations.
“It’s hard to get them to commit to something when they are not in town yet,” he said. The deadline to register a team with Baseball Alberta was April 21.
However, even though it looks like there won’t be a NCABL or junior team, baseball fans can take solace that there will be baseball in town this spring and summer.
“The pee-wee and bantams will move up a level and it looks like we will have two house pee-wee teams this year,” Hunter said, adding there are a lot of players in the feeder system, noting there will probably be two mosquito and rookie level teams and three T-ball teams.
Currently, Baseball Alberta has not published schedules for any age level, but Hunter said typically the season starts in the first or second week of May.
“A lot of it depends on the weather and the condition of the diamonds, but I understand some of the Barrhead teams have already held a couple of practices inside at the Barrhead Elementary School gym,” Hunter said.
