Baseball Manitoba honours its best

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This article was published 22/10/2024 (562 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Volunteers are the beating heart of minor sports.

Simply put, without them, the games don’t go on. On Saturday, Baseball Manitoba honoured four of the people who have done the most to keep the pitchers throwing and the batters swinging in Manitoba.

The organization added Peter Perreault of Russell, Nicole Madsen of Hamiota, Dale McKinnon of Deloraine and Tom Yandeau of Plumas, who was unable to attend, to its Honour Society.

“The people in the communities are delivering baseball and keeping it alive and taking registrations and fixing the diamonds and creating teams and coaching the players,” Baseball Manitoba executive director Jason Miller said. “Those are the people who drive our sport. Without them, it doesn’t exist. And when people do it for a lifetime, like 30 or 50 years, it really means a lot to Baseball Manitoba as a whole but also to their community and oftentimes to their families.”

The people added to the Honour Society are long-standing volunteers who are nominated through an online form or put forward by Baseball Manitoba’s awards selection committee or management committee.

“There are definitely times when we hand pick individuals who we’ve seen grow the game in a variety of ways over the past 50 years,” Miller said. “Certainly some people here fit the bill.”

The awards were handed out on Saturday evening at Brandon’s Clarion Hotel & Suites during the organization’s annual banquet.

The two other people with Westman roots to win the award were the top 16-and-under girls player, Ally Neufeld of Boissevain, and the winner of the Larry Nicholls Umpire Award of Merit, Miles Parr of Russell.

“It has to be one of our most important nights,” Miller said of Saturday’s festivities. “Provincial championship time is our busiest time and the time most people are celebrating baseball, but tonight is really about Baseball Manitoba giving back to the people who have driven the organization and done excellent things this season and celebrating them and their accomplishments. This is one of my favourite nights of the year, and as long as I’m around, it will be like this, a celebration of all the people.”

Here’s a closer look at all five Westman winners.

PETER PERREAULT

Just like with comic book superheroes, every umpire has a compelling backstory.

Perreault’s work as an umpire began around age 30 when he attended his nine-year-old son’s ballgame.

“It was a manager yelling into the stands ‘Who would like to umpire this ballgame?’” Perreault said. “I was in my mechanic’s overalls and work boots and I volunteered. I said ‘I’ll try,’ so I tried and apparently I did OK because they asked me again and again and again. That was about 30 years ago.”

He has since umpired countless games in the local minor ball association, senior baseball and the Western Canadian Baseball League.

“I enjoyed the game and I enjoyed doing the job,” Perreault said. “I’m an official by heart. I also do hockey and football. I enjoyed learning about the game, I enjoyed learning how to manage a game and being around the sport. I stuck around sometimes in spite, but I mainly stuck around mainly because I wanted to get better.”

During the summer, Perreault was the umpire supervisor at AA, AAA and senior men’s provincials and also at the Manitoba Summer Games in Dauphin, and served for years as the umpire in chief for Midwest and Russell Minor Ball. That means his impact extends well beyond the game he calls.

“Pete Perreault has been an umpire and umpire clinician for a very, very long time,” Miller said. “I’ve gotten to know him a lot over the last 10 years especially and really this year, because this year, even after 30-plus years of umpiring and 20-plus years of supervising and 10-plus years of being a clinician, he was still five or six weekends in a row at AA provincials, AAA provincials.

“He was the umpire-in-chief for Manitoba Games. He drives the umpire clinics and is a one-man show out west for umpire clinics. If you’re west of Portage and umpiring, Pete Perreault probably taught you. He’s that important.”

Perreault said that stems from his desire to share what he’s learned with others.

“As I progressed and got better, I was asked if I could pass on my knowledge and become a clinician,” Perreault said. “Automatically that’s more training and it made me a better umpire. If you’re going to be a clinician, you should do what you’re talking about. I started doing one or two a year and now I’m between 10 and 15 clinics a year.”

He now hands out assignments to other clinicians around the province, spreading his impact even farther. But he is quick to add he’s not perfect, nor is anyone else.

“One thing about umpires is that we all might be a little crazy,” Perreault said. “People think we should be 100 per cent right 100 per cent of the time. We also believe we should be 100 per cent right 100 per cent all the time full well knowing that it is an impossible achievement to achieve, yet we still keep on trying.

“Officiating in any sport, in my opinion, is a constant learning curve. Even at my age and at my stage, I’m always learning.”

That’s a big part of his approach to the job.

He has worked at nine nationals, all of which he considers highlights, but added he approaches every assignment the same way.

“Every game is a big game,” Perreault said. “Every time that I go out on the diamond, people expect me to do my best and I expect myself to do my best. I might be umpiring a 15-year-old kid, an 18-year-old or even a senior men’s (game), but this could be the best baseball they ever play. Well, they deserve the best umpiring I can give them. As far as highlights go, every game is a highlight to me.”

Even with all of his work, he said being recognized was not something that ever occurred to him.

“I’m truly very humbled by it,” Perreault said. “I was definitely not expecting it, and I’m very honoured to be honoured, especially with the people that I’m being inducted with. It’s a complete honour.”

NICOLE MADSEN

Like many volunteers, Madsen began her decades of service when her son Taylor was four and his T-ball team needed a coach.

“Like all small communities, you just have to step up and take that role on,” Madsen said.

Taylor, who still plays senior ball, was passionate about the sport, and it was apparently contagious. That first time helping out in baseball continues to ripple forward more than 20 years later for his mom.

“I knew baseball had provided a lot of opportunities for us as a family in creating memories and I wanted to bring that back to our community and instil that into other players and families,” Madsen said.

She has since served as a coach, administrator, and board member at the local, regional and provincial level, and after becoming involved with Hamiota Minor Baseball, is usually the lead contact for local tournaments, jamborees and provincial championships.

While also helping develop the baseball facilities in the town, she also joined the Midwest Minor Baseball board in a variety of positions.

In addition, in 2017 she was elected vice president of sport development for Baseball Manitoba and held that title for six years.

“Nicole has been the lifeblood of Hamiota minor ball and probably the broader Midwest region for the past 25 years at least,” Miller said. “Her son would be approaching 30 years old now and she was involved before that. Her and her family have hosted provincial championships, driven the revamp of their baseball diamonds and building of new ones.

“She’s been involved on various committees of Baseball Manitoba for decades, including the last stint was as VP of sport development and helping drive the grassroots programming and really emphasizing that it’s brought out to the Midwest and other rural communities.”

For Madsen, the payoff has come in the sport’s continued popularity in the town. She said her highlights are the chance she’s had to serve both the sport and the community.

“I think I’ve helped grow the baseball program in Hamiota,” Madsen said. “I’ve brought a lot of camps and clinics and I’ve hosted a lot of provincials that have promoted our community in general and our volunteer base in general.”

Still, the addition to the Honour Society was a surprise. She’s thrilled with the recognition.

“It’s kind of surreal,” Madsen said. “There are a lot of deserving people who have received this. It was a real honour.”

DALE McKINNON

McKinnon grew up in the Hamiota area, which has always been a baseball hotbed in the province.

He played on some good teams and attended western Canadian championships After moving to Deloraine, he played on the Royals senior teams, with the 1980-85 squads enshrined as a group into the Manitoba Baseball Hall of Fame in 2010.

The sport clearly made a deep impact on him.

“I played lots of baseball, and that’s who my good friends were, from the baseball team,” McKinnon said. “I loved the sport, and my own kids played so I coached lots. When you live in a small community, you take your turn as president of minor hockey and minor baseball. I was president for a few years. It’s just a part of baseball.”

McKinnon’s practices were described as planned, controlled, competitive, and fun, and they apparently worked, with Deloraine teams heading to provincial and western Canadian events.

Miller said his impact in those roles has been substantial.

“Dale McKinnon has been an integral part of the baseball scene in Deloraine for almost 50 years,” Miller said. “He was inducted into the Hall of Fame as a player on a team, which was a fantastic senior team in Deloraine.

“He’s just a huge part of the community in driving baseball, coaching teams, his sons came through the system and still just being a part of the community. Whenever there’s baseball in Deloraine, he’s around the diamond chipping in where he can.”

To underline how big his role has been in Deloraine, after his kids graduated from minor ball, McKinnon even umped for a dozen years.

“It’s a good sport, it’s a social sport, it’s a summertime sport,” McKinnon said. “It’s something I enjoyed doing.”

Even so, the dedicated community volunteer and baseball teacher was surprised when his work was recognized. He’s clearly touched by the honour.

“It’s very meaningful,” McKinnon said. “It came to me out of the blue. It’s not something I anticipated because I wasn’t a star player or a provincial executive. It was all done within my own community. I appreciate the acknowledgment. It means a lot.”

MILES PARR

Parr never set out to become an umpire, but fate apparently had different plans back in 1994. The longtime ball player from Binscarth, who now lives up Highway 16 in Russell, lent a hand behind the plate 30 years ago, and has been there ever since.

“One evening, one of our minor ball teams had no umpire,” Parr said. “The mother of one of the players happened to be on our local ball committee, who I had known for years, and asked if I was interested in umpiring. I said ‘Well, I’ve never done it.’ She said ‘You know ball and you played ball for a lot of years’ so I said I would try it.

“I did that game one night and found out I didn’t mind doing it and it helped the kids out. The next year I went and got certified, and that’s 30 years ago.”

He had already been a hockey referee for a decade, and has since added softball to his resume as well.

“I played ball all my life, both fastball and baseball,” Parr said. “It was something I could give back to the game. We’re always short of umpires so it was something I could give back to the game and I kept doing it.”

He has worked games in Russell and the entire Midwest region, and umped in the Manitoba Senior Baseball League and in the Western Canadian Baseball League for Yorkton and Melville.

Among his career umpiring highlights are the five national baseball events he’s worked at over the years.

“I enjoy it a lot,” Parr said. “You get to meet people from all over the country, work with different officials who have different ideas about the game. That’s one of the main things I enjoy.”

ALLY NEUFELD

Neufeld never imagined herself as a ball player. The veteran softball player added the sport to her resume this summer on a whim.

“It’s crazy,” Neufeld said. “It’s something I didn’t even think about when I was younger. It was just softball for girls. When I saw there was training in Portage for girls’ baseball, I was like ‘Oh, I should try that. It would be a new opportunity and something cool to do.’

“I tried that and it was like ‘Maybe I would like to do this long term instead of softball all the time.’ It’s just something new and I thought it was great. I loved it the first time I tried it and just stuck with it.”

The 16-year-old took the baseball field with the 18U AA Brandon Knights, and played softball with the under-17 Westman Magic. The Magic attended the western Canadian championship from Aug. 8 to 11 in Port Alberni, B.C., falling in the final.

She then hopped on a plane and joined Team Manitoba as an underager at the senior women’s national baseball championship in Quebec City from Aug. 15 to 18, and also played with the provincial team at the 16U national baseball championship in Saskatoon from Aug. 22 to 25.

“It was nerve-racking because I had never played baseball before and didn’t know what to expect,” Neufeld said. “I was 15 on the senior women’s provincial team. It was like ‘What am I doing?’ Then I’m starting in centre field the first game thinking ‘I was not expecting this at all.”

The biggest change between baseball and softball comes at the plate. Neufeld said the skill is the same but everything else is different.

“Softball is a lot closer so you have to change your timing,” Neufeld said. “The release point of the ball is different from underhand and overhand. The mechanics are all the same though. You stick to what you know and hit it.”

The nice thing for Neufeld at senior nationals was that she was competing alongside her fellow Boissevain product Zoe Hicks, who at 26 is arguably one of the best combined softball-baseball players in the world.

“She is such a big inspiration for me,” Neufeld said. “I look up to her so much. Her dad is my teacher at school actually so we talk about her a lot. I think it’s crazy I got to play with her my first year playing baseball.”

OTHER WINNERS

• Grassroots Team of the Year: 15U AA St James Female Team

• High Performance Team of the Year: Minor: 18U AAA Elmwood Giants

• High Performance Team of the Year: Major: Senior West Winnipeg A’s

• Grassroots Coach of the Year: Derek Helgason (Elmwood)

• High Performance Coach of the Year: Cody Benson (La Salle)

• 13U Player of the Year: Donovan Dionne (Bonivital)

• 14U Girls Player of the Year: Josie Miller (Headingley)

• 15U Player of the Year: Seth Hooper (St. Adolphe)

• 18U Player of the Year: Lucas Lyons (Winnipeg)

• 22U (Junior) Player of the Year: Easton Grieve (St James)

• Senior Men’s Player of the Year: Logan Warkentin (Domain)

• Senior Women’s Player of the Year: Jewell Thompson (MacGregor)

• Challenger Player of the Year: Hayden Cecchini (West St Paul)

• Volunteer of the Year: Dan Cox (Winnipeg)

• Derrick Dubell Grassroots Umpire of the Year: Michael Carlberg (La Salle)

• Ron Shewchuk High Performance Umpire of the Year: Ezekiel Fehr (Winnipeg)

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