The Eastman Wildcats U17 AAA Girls are headed to Nationals after winning gold and earning the title of Provincial Champions.
Athlete Pascal Kihn says Nationals start on Tuesday with a banquet, and the games go from Wednesday to Sunday.
“We have five games in the round robin and then hopefully we can make it to the playoffs.”
Athlete Danielle Heppner is looking forward to enjoying Nationals with her team, and is hoping they can get a few wins.
“I'm really excited for the week that's ahead of us, and I'm hoping that we keep our cool, keep it together, pull through, and maybe get some wins.”
She is glad to spend more time with her team both on and off the field.
“I love hanging out with the team. Even on the weekend when we were all watching the games together, we all had our snacks together in between games, it was just really good to see and I like how close we are.”
Heppner notes the support the team gets from their fans is something she really loves, and looks forward to being cheered on at Nationals.
“When people come to watch us and are congratulating us for our wins, I love that so much. I just think that when you're playing, it's really intense, but I like how we can keep calm and have people beside us.”
She says it was amazing to finally win the gold after two years of getting silver at provincials.
“Third time’s the charm. Because how do you go three years and get silver? But we pulled through this year and got gold, it was a really big relief.”
Kihn says it would be awesome to play softball while attending post-secondary.
“It's fun to see that you can be able to go to school and still play. I think it would be a really cool experience and I'm hoping to do that one day.”
Heppner says the all the players have really grown, improved, and come together this year.
“It's really cool to see, especially when our whole organization has grown so much with our U13s winning gold, and our U15s coming close to gold and going to Nationals with a silver medal.”
Both Heppner and Kihn will be on the team again next year, and expect they will have a very strong team with the girls coming up from U15.
With files from Dave Anthony
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