The Chestermere Crushers Navy U12 team ended their season off on a high after winning gold at the Westhills Tournament on June 24.
Throughout the Chestermere Crushers season, they won bronze at the South Bow River (SBR), Fastpitch Tournament, and gold in the City Championships on June 16.
“I was proud of them, from top to bottom every kid deserved to be there, and they made it show by winning the gold,” said Head Coach of the Chestermere Crushers Navy U12 team Kevin Lynch.
He added the team morale was very high after winning gold, filled with smiles, high fives, and hugs.
“It was a nice way to finish off the season with a gold medal,” Lynch said.
The Chestermere Crushers were successful because the teammates came together really well from the very beginning of their season.
“There wasn’t a whole lot of work involved in getting them to be a cohesive unit. It was more of fine-tuning their development as baseball players, and the rest just came together,” Lynch said.
“They did have a lot to learn, but as far as any group of kids, these ones were sponges, they just picked everything up really fast,” he added.
Throughout the season, the team would practice roughly once a week, where they would aspire to learn the fundamentals to baseball, such as how to slide, proper techniques in base running, and necessary fastpitch skills that the team will use for the rest of their time playing ball.
Although the Chestermere Crushers ended their season on a high, the team had many challenges they were forced to overcome, including moving down a division midway through a shortened season.
“We played our tournaments in the division we started in, and that’s where we won the gold and bronze,” Lynch said.
The athletes faced the adversity very well, and with positivity, which forced them to be stronger players, in the end, Lynch said.
“Every kid on the team was always really positive, they would cheer really loudly, and there were some kids on the team dancing, and singing on the field,” he said.
During the season whenever an athlete was feeling down on themselves, the entire team would do their best to pick up their teammate.
“Mistakes happen in baseball all the time, I know that there were times were kids got down on themselves,” Lynch said.
He added, “The good thing about this team was when that happened there was a group of girls who believed in each other and would do their best to pick up whoever had a rough day.”
