We’ve all read about the success of the Yellowknife Wolverines in Blackfalds, Alta., earlier this month. They became the first team from the NWT to win a provincial championship of any sort since the Yellowknife Junior Merchants in 2006.
There’s another team gearing up to hit the road in the coming days and they’re hoping to emulate that result.
The Yellowknife Merchants, made up of players from the Yellowknife Fastball League, is preparing to take on a provincial championship through Softball Alberta. They’ll do it in the Intermediate Men’s B division in Calgary from July 28 to 30, where they’ll be one of 10 teams looking to score the banner.
Steve Thomas was one of the catalysts behind getting the team together and he said Yellowknife has always had the capacity to do something like this.
“I’ve always wanted to help take a team from Yellowknife down south for as long as I’ve been here,” he said. “We’ve had good players and I thought travelling would be a good idea.”
Thomas’ original idea was to play in a North American Fastball Association (NAFA) tournament. Unlike other circuits such as the International Softball Congress (ISC), which is considered to be the top men’s fastball loop on the planet, NAFA has certain criteria teams must meet in order to enter certain divisions.
“They have pitcher classification and that determines where a team will be playing,” said Thomas. “You won’t get pitchers like Adam Folkard (from Australia) destroying everyone in your division because it’s all done on classification.”
The only problem is getting to a NAFA tournament can be quite costly. This year’s NAFA World Series events are happening in Wisconsin and there simply wasn’t enough time or money to get the team down to play there, said Thomas.
That meant going somewhere close to home, meaning Calgary was the best option.
Devin Hinchey has also been involved in the organization of the Merchants and he feels now is the perfect time for this current crop of players in Yellowknife to try something big.
“Given the skill level we have (in the league), all the best players in the league are playing at a really high level,” he said. “There’s a lot of interest around (Tommy Forrest Ball Park) with a new team in the league this season and the Wolverines playing part-time, so fastball is super healthy.”
Was it a hard sell to get the players on board? Not one bit, said Hinchey.
“As with all things, the logistics has been the toughest part,” he said. “What do we want to be called? Who can we get as sponsors? What are we doing for fundraising?”
One e-mail following the 2022 league championship to the membership, said Hinchey, was all it took.
“I had never seen so many replies so quickly,” he said. “Everyone who got back was completely and fully on board.”
The last time a men’s team had travelled outside the city to play was to a men’s recreational tournament in Grande Prairie, Alta., in 2016. Hinchey was a member of that team and there are some who made the trip back then who are making the trip this time around.
“A lot of the guys want to scratch the itch and play some competitive ball,” he said.
Picking to play in a provincial was strategic in a way, added Hinchey, in that it wasn’t too late in the season where everyone would’ve been tuckered out, but not too early where players would still be trying to work out the kinks.
“It gave us two of our tournaments, plus half of our regular season already played, plus time to schedule some practices,” he said.
As for the selection of the team name, Hinchey said it’s all about paying homage to the past.
“The Merchants name is very well-known and has a lot of history in Yellowknife,” he said. “Anyone who’s lived here long enough will know the success of past Merchants teams and it was our way of tipping the hat to those players who represented Yellowknife in the past and who did it so well.”
All of the Merchants roster will be playing this weekend at the NWT Men’s Fastpitch Championship in Hay River, followed by an exhibition game against an “all-star team” from the league at Tommy Forrest on July 25.
When asked if there’s the pressure to match the Wolverines’ result earlier this month, Thomas said the hope is that they just don’t get blown away.
“Don’t finish last,” he said with a chuckle. “Seeing what the Wolverines did was awesome and that’s going to be motivating for them, but I think we’ll hold our own.