Neepawa youth wins baseball bronze

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Published on Thursday, August 13, 2015

(Pictured) Nick Kuharski

By Eoin Devereux

The Neepawa Banner

A Neepawa youth has returned home with some hardware around his neck from the Western Canada Summer Games. Nick Kuharski was a member of Team Manitoba baseball, which ended up winning a bronze medal at the games, recently held in Wood Buffalo, Alberta. Manitoba defeated the host province in the third place game on Sunday, Aug 16, by the score of 5-1.

Kuharski, who plays the catcher position, said the opportunity to represent the province at the Western Canada Games was a great honour. He noted that the level of competition throughout the tournament was extremely high calibre.

“It was a great event with some very talented players out there. [Team Manitoba] played five games and the playoffs. There weren’t any games where our team felt outmatched,” noted Kuharski.

The Summer Games were played at the $133 million Shell Place on Fort McMurray’s MacDonald Island. Since the facilities opened earlier this year, it has already hosted Canadian Football League exhibition and regular season games and an Aerosmith concert. It also includes a brand new 2,300-seat state of the art baseball stadium with four adjacent softball fields and the capacity to host 5,500 fans. Kuharski noted that the facilities were very interesting.

“The baseball stadium was impressive. It was a bit different playing on it because it’s all Field Turf, as opposed to natural grass. It took a little bit of getting use to because the baseball reacts a bit differently, but we were able to adjust quickly. Overall, it was an incredible facility,” said Kuharski.

Neepawa found itself well represented on the softball diamond as well, as Amy Todoruk was a member of the squad. Todoruk and her 13 teammates represented the province very well at the Western Canada Games, making it to the bronze medal game, before being defeated by Saskatchewan 6-3.

Todoruk said that despite not bringing home a medal, she’s still very proud of the team’s effort and of being a part of the event in general.

“It was the most incredible experience I’ve ever been a part of and it was such an honour to be representing Manitoba,” said Todoruk. “The people and volunteers of Fort McMurray were so nice and the facilities, along with accommodations and food, were unreal. The level of competition was very high and even though we didn’t end up where we wanted to, we had a lot of good things happen on the field. I’m so thankful to have been able to go and it was an experience of a lifetime that I’ll never forget.”

In total, Manitoba placed third in the medal standings, with 144 medals, divided between 48 gold, 47 silver and 49 bronze.