The U15 Central Energy AAA team is ready to take the field and represent our community at the 2025 U15 Women’s Canadian Fast Pitch Championship being hosted in Morden-Winkler alongside the U15 men’s championship this week.
Games got underway Wednesday and will run at the ball diamonds in both Morden and Winkler through to the gold-medal games Sunday afternoon.
There are 20 teams coming from across the nation in the women’s event, including two teams joining the Energy in representing Manitoba: provincial gold-medal winners the Eastman Wildcats and the Interlake Phillies.
Central Energy are filling the host spot at the tournament, though they would have earned a seat at the table anyway with their second-place finish at provincials earlier this month.
On the men’s side, there are nine teams from Saskatchewan, Quebec, Ontario and Newfoundland/Labrador. Manitoba isn’t fielding a team.
Central Energy coach Kevin Convery says the girls are thrilled to be playing on the national stage right in their hometown, whatever the outcome may be.
“We’ve set realistic expectations for the week,” he says. “There’s 21 teams and I think 12 will go to the A-side playoffs. That’s our goal, so we have to finish in the top four in our pool to achieve that goal.
“We don’t know for sure what type of competition we’re going to be seeing, but we know it’s going to be good. There will be no teams that will be weak there,” he says. “But we’ve played really well. We just had a really competitive provincial final with Eastman, who were like 50 wins and two losses on the season. We lost that game [10-6], but it was very close. So we’re happy with how we’re playing.
“Our kids are relaxed, they’re having fun, but they’re competitive, so I think the chance of us getting to those A-side playoffs is good.”
Even if they don’t reach that goal, though, the team can hold their heads high after stellar season of ball.
“We’ve managed to achieve our other goal of this year, finishing in the top two in the province,” says Convery.
A massive undertaking
Planning for this event has been a massive undertaking, but organizers are certain they’ve checked all the boxes.
“Everyone feels pretty confident that we’re in a good spot,” Convery says. “When the games get started we’ll be on our toes running around and troubleshooting, but I think we’re ready. We’re excited and a bit nervous as a group, because it is a big event.”
Hundreds of volunteers have stepped up to make it happen, doing everything from manning the entrance gate to scorekeeping and announcing to keeping the diamonds in top shape between games.
“That was one of our concerns about three weeks ago, as we were a bit short on volunteers,” Convery shares. “But we put a big call out and people really responded.”
The community at large has responded in a big way as well, with numerous sponsors stepping up to help out financially and plenty of ball fans expressing their eagerness to fill the stands.
“We’re want to thank the community for their support to date, financially and also getting behind us to volunteer,” Convery says, urging everyone to “come watch some really competitive fast pitch. This is a chance for the community to see some of the best fast pitch players in the country at the U15 level … it’s an opportunity that won’t come along again anytime soon.”
Central Energy have games at 8:15 a.m. and 8:15 p.m. Wednesday, 1 p.m. and 5 p.m Thursday, and 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. Friday ahead of the playoffs over the weekend.
For the detailed schedule, head to softball.ca/u15womens. For the men’s event, go to softball.ca/u15mens.
