As he gets set for his 21st season coaching ball in the area, Brent Unrau, is ready to lead the U15 AAA South Central squad again and he's looking forward to a special year.
Going through the process of making the team has been both fun and challenging, according to Unrau. "It's very exciting to get the best players from the area together and be able to form a team. Looking forward to getting outside, there's only so much you can do inside. We had a great turnout for the tryouts and it made making the team pretty tough."
Unrau says the group that's been put together is built to do some damage. "The group that we have this year, South Central decided to do a little different with the way they evaluated players. They gave us indoor time and we had a great crop of kids to pick from. There wasn't one kid there that wasn't listening, wasn't trying hard and wasn't there for love of the game. It was a really great, dedicated group to choose from."
The U15 is a great age to coach, according to Unrau and he's excited to see where the kids start compared to how they develop throughout the year. "Each kid is different and pulling from different communities, you're going to get different backgrounds. End of the day, you want to give every kid a chance and a look, making sure they have the opportunity to show their skill. For the kids who made the team or even the kids that didn't, you want them to have that desire to get better. Having the chance to play in the AAA league in Winnipeg, it really brings out the competitive nature in kids and shows where they need to make improvements as a team. It's been a great experience so far and for the kids that made it, it's been special. We have multiple kids that play hockey or badminton or play on other ball teams, we want to support that. I think having good, all-around athletes will be a benefit."
It's not just the on the diamond skills, for Unrau, it's about teaching the mental side of the game as well. "I think being a part of the game for the better part of half my life, I've learned from failure and found a way to instill confidence in kids so they're not afraid to make mistakes. Baseball is a game of failure, the best players in the world fail 70% of the time, there's that old stat. It's not always about one at bat or one pitch, it's about the season a whole. Winning championships are great, it's awesome to hoist a trophy, but I think having 15 guys, a group of parents and coaches all supporting each other and having a great season, that's the focus. Turning what they may think is a negative experience into a learning process is important and having smart kids, which I think we have, will help as they learn from years past."
Being around the game and the area for years, Unrau couldn't be prouder of how the baseball programs have grown through support of the communities. "It's been awesome. I've been lucky enough to do some Baseball Manitoba stuff in different communities and regardless of skill level, seeing kids come out and playing, representing their community, it's so awesome. We're lucky, we get to see the South Central gear represented around the area. At U15, we have players that are on teams that maybe are not AAA and those kids get better by playing with better kids. It's really great."
Year 21 for Unrau will be extra special for a couple of different reasons. "Well, my kid plays, so sometimes I'm there anyways but getting to be involved and help out means a lot. Having the opportunity to make kids better players and be better people, it's a gift. I've been lucky to coach some really great people and they've gone on and it's amazing to see their success. They really value what they've learned and they care about the area, they're so respectful of it all. They're good people, hard working kids and you see it at different levels. We have kids at Division 1 like Ethan Giesbrecht (with Kansas State University) and Tristan Peters, who's in AAA and he's doing really well there. We have multiple players from Manitoba in different levels and it's truly special."