Last week during the Okanagan Softball Camp, aspiring baseball star Kaitlyn Doucette was seen hammering a softball in the batting cages in Oliver Community Park. (Dan Walton photo)
Young female athletes have come from across North America to cover all the bases of their favourite pastime at the Okanagan Softball Camp.
The diamonds in Oliver Community Park were full all last week as swarms of young girls spent the sunny weather honing their skills during the annual training clinic.
“This is our 17th year coming here as a camp,” said camp coordinator Carolyn Bell. “Girls come together to get some of the best coaching available in North America so that they’ll become better at softball.”
Most athletes come from around B.C. and Alberta, though some attendees come from Ontario, Washington State and New York. Some of the trainees are members of the Canadian National Team, and the coaching team have all competed on the international level.
“Our coaches have always maintained to be the top level of instructors, and they maintain their coaching accreditation,” Bell said. “The goal is to give back to make these young girls the best players they can be. We focus on looking at each girls’ habits and seeing where they need to improve, and each girl develops at her own pace. Some drills have been around since we were kids – tried, tested and true, and then we’re always working on new drills that get the kids where they need to be.”
The week was jam-packed with programming, and while some of the scheduling calls for extra-curricular fun, much of the clinic had the girls on track for some intense training.
“In softball you need to have repetition, and that’s why we’re out here every day at 9 o’clock,” Bell said. “We go over all aspects of the game, but we try to spend a lot of time on hitting – as a nation we don’t spend enough time on hitting.”
When they’re not on the fields or studying video analysis, Bell said softball camp is like a giant sleepover.
“We have talent contests, movies playing every night, they have poster contests, swimming at the pool every day with cannonball contests. You come here and you make friends, and that’s just what naturally happens with the girls in a team atmosphere.”
And Bell said running through the slip ’n’ slide was a major highlight for the girls.
“We keep coming back here because we always seem to be guaranteed great weather, and Oliver Parks and Rec staff keep these fields maintained in world-class shape. There’s a good reason we keep coming back. This is one of the best fields we have in the province, in terms of how we’re able to be out here all day, we have batting cages, we have the arena where girls can be housed and fed, and we’re in wine country – it can’t be any better.”
Bantam softball player Anna Hennessey, who travelled from the state of New York to be in Oliver last week, said the Okanagan Softball Camp is just as competitive as the American leagues, which are deeply integrated into their school system.
“I love all the girls and the instructors are really nice and they know a lot about the game,” she said. “This is my first time in British Columbia and it’s beautiful – I’m loving it. We have a lot of fun in the arena just hanging out and messing around. I’m definitely coming back next year.”
DAN WALTON
Oliver Chronicle
