Cody Benson of La Salle was recognized as our province's High-Performance Coach of the Year at the 2024 Baseball Manitoba Awards Banquet held Saturday night in Brandon.
Benson coached the 17U Provincial team this year.
The team included Ty Magarrell & Logan Lesser of Morden; Graham Thiessen & Hudson Nikkel of Stanley and Nate Lodewyks of La Salle.
The team finished third out of 96 teams at the Gopher Classic in Minneapolis/St. Paul in July for 19-and-under legion baseball players. Manitoba lost the semi-final by a walk off sacrifice fly to Lincoln East, Nebraska who went on to win the tournament.
The 17U team then won bronze at the 2024 Canada Cup in Fort McMurray in August and were the only team who beat the eventual champion, Team BC.
Benson will lead this team again in 2025, as they set out to win the Canada Summer Games in St. John’s Newfoundland next August.
2024 Baseball Manitoba Award winners
Challenger Player of the Year - Hayden Cecchini (Winnipeg)
13U Player of the Year - Donovan Dionne (Bonivital)
15U Player of the Year - Seth Hooper (St. Adolphe)
18U Player of the Year - Lucas Lyons (Elmwood)
14U Female Player of the Year - Josie Miller (Headingley)
16U Female Player of the Year - Ally Neufeld (Boissevain)
Senior Women’s Player of the Year - Jewell Thompson (MacGregor)
22U Player of the Year - Easton Grieve (St. James)
Senior AA Player of the Year - Logan Warkentin (Winnipeg)
Grassroots Coach of the Year - Derek Helgason (Elmwood)
High Performance Coach of the Year - Cody Benson (La Salle)
Grassroots Team of the Year - 15U AA St. James A’s Female
High Performance Team of the Year (Minor) - 18U AAA Elmwood Giants
High Performance Team of the Year (Major) - West Winnipeg A’s
Derrick Dubell Grassroots Umpire of the Year - Michael Carlberg (Winnipeg)
Ron Shewchuk High Performance Umpire of the Year - Ezekiel Fehr (Winnipeg)
Larry Nicholls Umpire Award of Merit - Miles Parr (Russell)
Volunteer of the Year - Dan Cox (Winnipeg)
Honour Society Inductees - Dale McKinnon (Deloraine), Tom Yandeau (Plumas), Nicole Madsen (Hamiota) & Pete Perreault (Russell)
Region of the Year - Red River Valley
Clayton Dreger asked Cody Benson to reflect on the 2024 Baseball Manitoba Awards Banquet