Sports
August 15, 2007 10:25 PM
By: Mike Hayakawa
Two years ago, the Thornhill Reds rookie rep baseball team did not exist.
Last weekend, they were proclaimed as York Simcoe Baseball Association champions. The Reds laid claim to what assistant coach Wayne Levy believed was their first YSBA rookie rep championship in at least 10 years after mercying host Vaughan 23-1 in Sunday’s title tilt.
“The kids were unbelievable,” Levy, who coaches the team along with Dave Katz, mark Cuisimano, Greg Hotta, Dave Joseph and John Wamboldt, said of his group of eight-year-olds.
In reaching the final of the double elimination tournament, the Reds subdued Georgina and Bolton by identical 23-3 scores and then defeated defending champion North York 7-1. After incurring a 20-6 loss to Vaughan Sunday morning, the Reds came back to rout Newmarket 19-9 to gain a berth in the final, which was delayed by more than an hour due to rain.
In explaining the club’s meteoric rise in just two years and in which they returned just four players from last season’s inaugural roster while fielding eight newcomers with just prior house league experience, Levy said a significant part of it boiled down to developing a rapport with the youngsters. Not to mention developing their playing skills throughout the season.
“It was all positive reinforcement,” he said.”I’m just a big kid, so I knew how to talk to them. If the kids made a mistake, we (the coaches) didn’t yell at them or centre them out. There was never anything negative from us.”
What might have been an indication of things to come for the team though, Levy recalled, was in their final regular season game two weeks ago when they defeated Vaughan for the first time this season by a 15-4 margin.
In winning the league championship, the Reds will take part in the Ontario Baseball Association championships Labour Day weekend in Stratford.