It's been an incredible, record setting season so far for the U15 Eastman Wildcats and coach Russ Kihn says as the team hits the mid-season mark, the best is still yet to come.
"It's gone fast," Kihn says about the season to this point. "The way the girls have played so well, it's made for a great season. We've had a lot of success. It's been awesome. Everything has been great and things have gone by in a blur."
Putting aside the results, which have been beyond impressive, Kihn says he's really happy with the mentality of the team and their desire to always improve. "It's been great, even when we're having success, there's always something that happens in a game where the girls are asking how they can be better. They want to learn all the time. It's fantastic that they're not happy just being where they are at, they want that next level. We have some big tournaments coming up, plus provincials and hopefully nationals, it's those small details that can be very important in those big games if we want success."
Kihn says it's been special to watch the team interact, support one another but also hold each other accountable in a respectful way. "We talk about that through the winter while we're training, if one of your teammates is telling you you should be doing things this way or that way, they are not telling you in a mean way, they want to help you out to help the team out. It's a total team game. They push each other, for sure. If someone has a rough day on the mound or having troubles with the bats, the other girls pick them up. It's been really amazing to see them support each other."
This past week was a special one for the Wildcats in a couple of different ways. "Yeah, it was big," Kihn says with a humble smile. "Three weeks or so ago, we were in Brandon for the Wheat City Classic, we made the finals but the rain came down that Sunday afternoon, so we were not able to finish it up. We were supposed to play Central Energy in the finals so we moved the game and played them on Canada Day, we played them in the morning and we were able to come out on top. We were down early, down 5-1 at one point, but we kept battling back. We scored a run every inning to complete the comeback, 7-5. That gave us the Wheat City Classic title and moved us to 30-0 on the season, tying the best ever record for a Wildcats team. We played the second game of the double header and we won that one, too. Again, we had to comeback and we did, moving to 31-0 which would be a new organizational record."
A very proud moment for the team and Kihn says the team was well aware of what was on the line in those two games leading up to 31-0. "They knew all about it, for sure. I've got four girls on the team who have older sisters on the team that was holding the record, so they were well aware of what was going on. They were not counting down the days, but they had 31-0 in their sights, for sure."
When it came to the celebrations, Kihn says between the gold medal win and the record setting win, there was one that was celebrated a little more than the other. "I think 31 was a little bigger, just because it was the second game of the day and we were done. After winning that gold medal, we knew we had another game, so it was a little more subdued."
Challenges will continue for the Wildcats and Kihn says one of those challenges is keeping the team engaged without burning out. "You have to balance it out. As far as not burning out, we don't practice huge, we don't practice back to back days. We did just have a break for about 10 days with a bunch of grad stuff and some hockey conflicts, so we did get a break, which is good, I'm hoping we come back refreshed."
As the Wildcats move into the unofficial back half of their season, Kihn says they have some premier events upcoming and he believes his team is built to rise to the occasion. "This weekend, we're heading down to Mankato, Minnesota, for the Peppers Classic. We've been there the last few years, two years ago with a similar team which ended up losing in the gold medal final, so we're hoping to maybe improve on that if we can. It'll be good, there's a lot of teams from Wisconsin, South Dakota and Minnesota that will be there, so it'll be good competition. We'll come home and we have a few more league games to go, then provincials on the weekend of 24th-27th of July, depending how we do there, we're really hoping to finish top two and end up going to the national championships in Winkler later in August."
If the first half of the season is any indication of what the group is capable of, more big things are coming to the U15 Eastman Wildcats AAA team.