The Wawanesa Brewers have started another season in the South West Baseball League and manager Kevin Cullen is thrilled to get things going while representing the community on and off the field.
"It's exciting, the start of a new season always brings excitement," Cullen says with a smile. "The guys are anxious to get going and get their bodies back in shape and get back on the diamond again. It's a great time of year."
Having been with the Brewers for almost a decade, Cullen says the start of a new year never gets old. "It's great to see the guys, hang around the fella's, it's great. It's amazing to kind of see where the guys start and how they'll develop throughout the year. It's always a great time."
It's going to be a different looking Brewers team this year, according to Cullen. "So we have a little different roster this year. We lost a couple bodies from our squad from last year, a couple of them are going to another team in the league. Souris, Souris is back in the league this year, which is great for that community, we had a couple of guys playing for us, but they're now back with their home town team. Good for them, not so good for us. Three other guys have decided to retire from ball this year and so we've lost some experienced ball players. On the flip side, we did gain a couple more from other towns and communities, so it's nice to get some extra bodies there. We thought we'd be short but we're closer to a full roster. We've also picked up three high school students. So, the make up is good, we have three or four wily vets, four or five in high school and a pretty darn good nucleus of guys int he mid-twenties who have been in the league for a few years. Put it all together and it's a pretty good team."
Because of the turnover and new players wearing a Brewers jersey, Cullen says there's been an increased focus on team bonding. "That's key, our guys love hanging out with each other. We have so many new bodies, we want to make sure we keep hanging out after games and practices. We haven't had a lot of opportunity to do some stuff but we're hoping over the next few weeks, we can build that repour and we believe it'll be a reason for success."
Representing the community is something Cullen and every Brewer take a lot of pride in and the support in return means a great deal. "We're lucky, we have great, great fan support. Lots of people come out to our home games and they even come out to the road games. The players love it, it's great to play in front of a supportive crowd. We understand the team is important to the community, it's a gathering place in the spring and summer, it gives people something to do on a Friday evening or whenever. It's perhaps even more important because last winter, we didn't have a senior hockey team in town. A lot of people missed that and they're happy we can field an adult baseball team. It's very important."
Cullen says the players understand the responsibility of being good athletes on the field and good role models off of it. "The guys that have been around for a while really do get it. It's great to see the kids come out to games, they chase those foul balls, they bring them to the dugout and we give them a token of appreciation every time they bring a ball back. It's great to have the young kids peek around the dugout, say hi and get a high five from the guys. I coach a younger girls softball team and it's great to hear them ask about the Brewers, how they're doing and when they play. It's neat to see the men on the Brewers really growing that relationship with the town."
As the season continues, there are specific areas where Cullen believes the group can take some big steps forward. "I guess what we need to be doing is getting into game shape. Our pitchers need to increase that arm strength, find their groove. Offensive side, we need to see live pitching. Getting that timing down and getting the offense going. We've had some very tough pitching in our first few games but the offense has woken up recently here. We need to keep developing physically and mentally, making sure we're engaged in games from start to finish. We need to keep learning how to work together, we need the guys to understand how to interact with each other. We have to find our roles, get everything lined up and it's great we can do that now that we're into the season."
The Wawanesa Brewers are in Deloraine tonight.