Veteran ball player Ryan Gerbrandt has represented the Altona Bisons on the diamond for years and recently, he also took his skills as a fire fighter up north to help people in need.
Looking back over the year so far, Gerbrandt says there are positives but also room to grow. "We've got a good group of core guys out and we're also getting younger every year, which is really exciting to see the program continue on. We feel that the team has allowed a few wins to slip from our grasp a little bit, but overall, we're starting to go in the right direction."
For the past 10 or 11 years, Gerbrandt has played ball in Altona and he says going from being a young guy to a crafty veteran has been a special journey. "You feed off the guys that were there before you and you learn from them, the knowledge they have of the game. You try and share that with the younger generation coming in, we've got some really good, young players coming in. They teach us a few things, whether it's them graduating from college with their physiotherapy or teaching us old guys how to take care of ourselves, or even learning just being in the league for a number of years, knowing which teams have better players and how to manage them. It's been a really good mix, that's for sure."
Being a longer standing Bison, Gerbrandt says building rivalries with teams always makes the games a little more exciting. "It's so great to see. We've had our rivals, especially with the teams we see in the East, Winkler, Moden, Carmen, facing Cartwright a few times in the finals and teams you face in playoffs. It's great to see in the smaller towns, even though Altona would be considered a smaller town, how their programs are very strong and competing every night. It's really exciting."
Representing Altona has always been a point of pride for Gerbrandt and he says it really is a dream come true. "It's very special, it's a dream to represent your home town in something you do and love. Trying to show that there's a good core of community, you can have the older generations mix in with the younger generations. I know a lot of us senior Bison's help out with the minor ball programs throughout the season, it's really good to see that."
Ryan Gerbrandt doesn't just represent Altona on the ball field, he also represents the community as a fire fighter and recently, he was called to head north to lend a helping hand to a community in need. "So, I had the opportunity to head up to Cross Lake, Manitoba, with a crew of people from Pembina Valley, multiple different fire departments and we went up there for about five days. It's something you don't wish upon any community for what was going on up there, but it was exciting to see many from across the province or even nationally, people from across Canada or even the States, it was great to see people put their lives on hold to step up to help others, it's was something special."
Having an athletic/team first mentality is something Gerbrandt says really helps in those situations as a fire fighter, everyone from all over coming together for a common goal. "Everybody has their strong suits and there's a team atmosphere. You want to be pulling the cart in the same direction. On the fire ground, you want to have a direction in place and level training, experience leading. If you don't have that, things can go sideways and the unfortunate thing is sometimes it's the difference between life and death, something you don't ever want to happen."
With his time up north complete, Gerbrandt is focused on being local again and he says the Bison's are going to use the next few weeks to really ramp up their game. "Hopefully, we can play some clean ball. We've had some good, timely hits the last couple of games. We've hit balls hard but they've been right at guys, hopefully they can start finding grass on the field and we can get down to winning ball games."
The Altona Bisons next home game is Friday vs Holland, game time is 8:30 p.m.