The last business from the 2024 Manitoba Games in Dauphin was the closing ceremony on Aug. 17, which celebrated the accomplishments of Manitoba’s top young athletes.
For Team East Region, Veronica Varnes received the nod this year as one of three closing ceremony flag bearers.
The 15-year-old from Warren represented the East Region in softball, where she held her team in games with her stellar speed and hand-eye coordination at the shortstop position.
Varnes, who plays locally for the AA Interlake Maroons, said she found out she would be carrying the flag for Team East in a practice just before the team began tournament play in Dauphin.
“It was an honour,” said Varnes following the Games. “It was so great. I had a lot of fun with it, especially when I had to take it up to the stage which was kind of cool. I was so happy and excited but also nervous because there was a lot of people there.”
But Varnes’s nerves didn’t get to her as she, along with Kyle Azaransky, a Team East Cycling and Triathlon member, and Quinn Lavoie, a Team East Soccer and Athletics member, entered the stadium waving the East Region’s flag high.
Though Team East Softball didn’t earn a medal at the games, it was still an event Varnes won’t soon forget as she made many memories and lifelong friendships along the way.
Living in the athletes’ village solely with team members offered them a chance to bond closer as a team when they were not competing in high-stakes ball games.
“It was nice; you got to go to your rooms, meet other people, go to the canteen and get a snack, go to the library and play games with your friends, so it was pretty good there,” said Varnes. “We had quite a bit of time. We had games to play but had a lot of time there. We bonded a lot and will definitely text back and forth through the next season. I will definitely be seeing them around and playing with them.”
As for what’s next for Varnes’ softball career, she hopes to jump from double-A to triple-A next season with the AAA Interlake Phillies.
Part of her case for a roster spot will come from her ability to play nearly any position on the field which she did this season with the Maroons.
Sticking at shortstop at the Games, one of her coaches, Nikki Mathews, was amazed at how effective she was, even going as far to say she is the best ball tracker she has seen.
For Varnes, that stems from her history of playing a variety of sports growing up, specifically fencing which she competed in at a young age.
“I do track which helps me because I’m very fast with that but I used to do fencing and you had to have a lot of hand speed and stuff like that so I definitely learned from other sports.”
After the Games, Varnes hopes to share her positive experience with the next generation of Team East softball players.
