In no particular order, here are the people that the Team Toba coaching staff would like to thank for all of their help over the past two years:
- Thank you to the 15 athletes who were on our roster at the Canada Games- you gave it your all during a long summer of ball and we hope you can look back at the Summer of 2017 one day and realize how special it is to be a member of Team Toba Softball. We also need to give a huge shout out to all of the gals who trained and practiced with us along the way- each of you contributed to this team, and your involvement helped shaped Team Toba. And can I also just say a huge thank you to all of you for always being game for a crazy group photo for Instagram...you came up with some wild dress up days at training, and don't forget who won the Toba Pep Rally with their epic dance!
- Even though our team was in the oldest age category at the Canada Games, we have to give a huge shout out to our Team Toba parents- you were so supportive along the way especially at the Games. Your cheering was amazing and it was so reassuring to see so many of you there to support your daughters throughout the season! Thank you for all of your help with scorekeeping, providing laundry tips, snacks at practices and all of those little things that softball parents just know how to do!
- Our incredible bat girl at Canada Games, Leah Bunio! Leah went above and beyond as bat girl (and even came out this summer when her wrist was in a cast!), and her enthusiasm on the bench was so awesome. We're so glad that we could have her along for the ride!
- Our student athletic therapist from the University of Winnipeg, Kalynn Wood- thank you for all of the time you put in throughout the season while you were completing your practicum.
- We also need to give a huge shout out to all of the volunteers at Blumberg during the Games- so many of you were connected to members of our team in some way, or you were part of our team four years ago in Sherbrook. It definitely made things a little bit easier during the week to know that we had the best people looking after our venue and our team...and easier to call in a couple of extra special "favours"...wink wink nudge nudge.
- Marshall Shuster at Blumberg- there were few requests that Marshall couldn't help us with along the way!
- All of the great people in the softball community who helped us find practice facilities and diamonds when we weren't at Blumberg- this wasn't always an easy task, but Jeremy Lough and Tracy Turner always managed to come through for us! And a huge shout out to Jon Ali at Home Run Sports Training Centre for his help with booking cages and the staff out at Southport Rec Centre for being so accommodating with our winter training.
- All of those incredible pitchers who helped take the pressure off of our coaches and came out to throw some BP...Bouch, Mandy Greenberg, Sarah Belanger and Regan Lawrence. I think all of them came away without a scratch except for one...
- The incredible people who lead the whole Team Toba group- Barry Moroz and Marcie Halls-Stronciski, thank you for always helping us make sure our needs were met and filling a couple of those "special" requests that we had along the way...and to Kerri Tyschinski and Leigh Legal-Young in the office, thank you for keeping us organized with countless sizes, checklists and spreadsheets!
- The staff at the Canada Games Sport for Life Centre, especially Adam Decker, Neal Prokop and all of the trainers who worked with our group along the way- thank you for always being accommodating to our needs and requests and creating amazing sport-specific programs designed to help our athletes perform at their best!
- Ahhhh....and then there's the two people who always dread finding their names and photos on the blog. I bet they even though they missed out on this post since their names are waaaaaaaaay at the very end. We couldn't forget Don "Tall Guy" Klym and Carol Johnson- they are the two people running the show at Softball MB from behind the scenes- and without them we would have a pretty tough time basically doing anything. So a huge thank you to both of you for all of the help along the way! Any guesses how long it will take before I get a threatening email about this year's photos??? So worth it though. Every time.
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| Yes...that is Tall Guy organizing his pins! |
- And last but not least...thank you to all of our blog readers and subscribers! We made it to over 100 000 hits which was my goal at the start of this season. And thank you to everyone who followed us on Instagram, it has definitely been a learning experience keeping up with all of the fancy social media "stuff"...but hopefully it kept all of you in the Team Toba loop. Stay tuned, there may be a few more blog posts coming up!
