District Championship held at Sunnyside Park

Jun. 19, 2023

Sunnyside Park was buzzing with excitement this past weekend as South Surrey White Rock Minor Softball Association was host to Softball BC's U13 and U17 District Championship. This three day championship brought together fourteen teams from Cloverdale Minor Softball, Fleetwood Fastpitch, Surrey Storm and South Surrey Minor Softball associations.

Thank you to all of the participating teams that battled hard and showed amazing sportsmanship. Congratulations to those teams that persevered and took home a medal at the district championship.

U13C Division

GOLD - Cloverdale Royals

SILVER - SSWR Tsunami

BRONZE - Fleetwood

Participants: Cloverdale Flames and SSWR Cherry Bombs

U13B Division

GOLD - Cloverdale Fury 10B

SILVER - Cloverdale Fury 11B

BRONZE - Surrey Storm 11B

U17B Division

GOLD - Cloverdale Fury 07B

SILVER - Cloverdale Fury 06B

BRONZE - SSWR Thunder 06B

Participants: Fleetwood Force 07B, Surrey Storm 07B and SSWR Thunder 07B

We are very proud all of our South Surrey White Rock teams that participated in the championship including U13C Cherry Bombs coached by Kevin Furness and U17B Thunder 07 coached by Steve Thibodeau as well as medal winners U13C Tsunami coached by Travis Deeter and U17B Thunder 06 coached by Clint Walker.

We were saddened that our Thunder 11 team coached by Davis Jackson had to withdraw from the U13B division. There are no pickup players allowed at district championships and Thunder had a few players unable to attend which dropped the team below the minimum roster size required to participate in the district championship. The team had worked hard all year for this opportuity to challenge for a berth in the provincial championship. We wish Davis and Thunder 11B the best of luck in their remaining regular season games.

South Surrey White Rock Minor Softball is a volunteer run association and we could not have hosted this event without the tireless effort of our member families.

On Sunday morning our volunteers arrived as early as 6:30 am to get the fields ready for playoff games after some wet overnight weather. Just prior to game time we were hit with a flash rain and hail storm that literally destroyed our six fields turning them into mud swamps and made them unplayable. If we were unable to repair enough fields the tournament could have been converted to a single elimination format according to Softball BC rules. This would mean that many of the teams that showed up on Sunday to play would have been retroactively eliminated from the competition. This would have been unfortunate considering that some of those teams went on to earn medals. After a two hour rain delay, removing surface mud and water and adding loads of new material our volunteers were able to get most of our fields back to a safe and playable condition.

We would like to thank our Volunteer Coordinator Alicia Johnson and her family, including her parents as well as our Tournament Director Angela Humphrey and her family as well as David Harris our Past President whose tremendous efforts to repair the fields allowed the tournament to continue.

South Surrey White Rock Minor Softball was proud to host this championship at Sunnyside Park. It was a pleasure to work with Softball BC's Minor Director Lavaughn Larson, District 7 Umpire In Chief Kyle Dennedy, SSWRMSA's David Harris, Angela Humphrey, Alicia Johnson, park UIC Don Fielder and all of the umpires, volunteers, coaches, managers and amazing athletes that made this truly an enjoyable weekend.

I would also like to thank Fleetwood Fastpitch's President Tracey Oye who I often had on speed dial for advice in preparing for this championship. Fleetwood and SSWRMSA were co-hosts for all the U13 to U20 district 7 championships this year.

Good Luck to all the teams that are moving on too participate in Regional and Provincial Championships.

Thomas Bell

President

South Surrey White Rock Minor Softball Association

U13C Division

GOLD - Cloverdale Royals

SILVER - SSWR Tsunami

BRONZE - Fleetwood