The U13 AAA provincials start today in Friedensfeld, and the coach of the U13 Eastman Wildcats, Jason Plett, says the group is poised to do something special.
Hosting the provincials is a real point of pride for Plett and the team. "It means a lot," he says proudly. "It's lots of fun for the girls to play in front of family and friends, when it's close to home, you get a few more of those coming out, especially on summer holidays. We start today, we're expecting nice weather and we're hoping to have lots of fans out."
When it comes to feeling added pressure being the host, Plett says he's not too worried as the team has proven they're mentally tough and supportive of each other. "We haven't really talked about extra pressure, but playing in front of family and friends, there is added pressure to perform. Every player deals with it differently. We kind of know which players may struggle with pressure situations, so we keep trying to build them up, talk to them during games and hopefully they can pull through."
It's not just the coaches, it's also on the players themselves, players helping players, says Plett. "We've told the girls many times, the only way to deal with pressure is to go through pressure. The returning players we have on the team this year, went through this last year as first years, so they can take that experience and relay that to the newcomers on this year. We have some great leaders on the team, and I think they'll really help the younger ones pull through this weekend. It's going to be fun to watch."
Heading into the big tournament, Plett is feeling confident and believes the group is ready for the moment. "I think we're in a pretty good spot," he says confidently. "We started the year off pretty decently, we kind of gained steam as the year went on and while we went on a little slump, we're hoping that it's the slump for the year, and the last few games, the girls have really turned it on. I think we're in a good spot with where we are at. We're playing good defensive ball which is really key at the U13 level, the less errors the better and usually at the U13 level, the team that makes the fewest errors usually comes out on top. Our bats are waking up, as well, so we're feeling really confident."
One area that Plett says he believes will boost his team over the others in the tournament, "definitely our defense," he says emphatically. "Our pitchers that we have this year are more dominant in placing the ball, they force the other team to hit, put it in play and ground out or fly out. The girls playing solid behind them, it boosts the confidence for the pitchers, they don't force things feeling like that have to strike everyone out. They can go out, do their thing and know the team is there behind them."
Having teams from around the province come to the area is special for Plett and he says the community around the team that has made this possible is also very special. "The parent group for the U13 is fantastic. They've stepped up and filled the volunteer needs for hosting. Some of the U15 parents as well have stepped in to help out during our U13 game time, just so the U13 parents can enjoy watching their kids. The U17 and U19 AAA provincials happening on the same weekend as ours, it took a lot of volunteers away from our organization, and the U13 parents really needed to step up, and they did. It's really awesome when you have that support. When you're the head coach, it makes life a lot easier when you have a lot of people wanting to help out in any way they can."
The U13 AAA Eastman Wildcats have two games on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, then look to enter the playoff picture on Sunday.