Westman trio set for Canada Games

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This article was published 05/08/2025 (305 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Three Westman athletes will be in action starting this weekend as Manitoba’s female softball team takes the field in St. John’s, NL.

Naomi McKay of Waywayseecappo, Kendall Charles of Virden, Ky Solomon of Shoal Lake, and Team Manitoba will take part in five round-robin games, all to be played at the Caribou Memorial Softball Complex: On Sunday they square off against Newfoundland Labrador and Ontario, on Monday they meet New Brunswick and Yukon, and on Tuesday they face Quebec.

The qualification and placement games take place from Wednesday to Friday, with the gold medal game set for Friday at 1:30 p.m., local time (11 a.m. CDT).

“I’m so excited,” McKay said. “Everybody is excited to go. We’ve all been waiting, and it’s been a long year practising and the nerves are building up. Everybody is simply excited for the opportunity.”

The team flew out on Friday.

Team Manitoba nearly had a fourth Westman player, and she will be missed.

Boissevain’s Danika Nell was also named to the team, but the Boston University star suffered an injury during her freshman season and was advised to take the summer off to heal.

Manitoba’s players learned the news when they were in British Columbia at a tournament in early July.

“We had good pitchers on our AP list, so they’ve been playing with us because Nelly hasn’t been able to come at all,” Charles said. “It’s almost like our APs have been part of our team, so it’s kind of exciting that Kelsey (Warkentine) is able to come with us to St. John’s now.”

McKay added Nell ultimately had to worry about herself first.

“We were all hoping she would come, but her health is more important,” McKay said. “We hope she gets well, and she has school coming up, and I feel like that’s more of her top priority, so we’re wishing her the best of luck and are going to try our best for her.”

The Eastman Wildcats are represented by Warkentine, Abby Dixon, Chloé Carrière, Emma Franklin, Danyel Heppner, Kali Remillard, and Lexi Remillard, with Central Energy’s Pascale Kihn, Brooklyn Friesen, Molly Conrad, and Nelia Fehr. Taylor Stronciski of the Smitty’s Terminators is also on the squad.

The team is guided by head coach Dwight Heppner and assistant coach Sarah Shotton.

“I feel like we all clicked pretty easily,” Charles said. “Everything is fun on the diamond and off the diamond. We’re all friends of the diamond, we hang out on free weekends. It’s really fun to be around this group, and they’re all good ball players.”

They’ve also proven to be a good team on the diamond. Solomon said expectations are high.

“We have it all,” Solomon said. “Definitely we’re a very strong hitting team. We have unbelievable pitching. They can go up up there and go three-up, three-down on their own. If they get a ball in play, we’ll make a play out of it.

“It’s really great to be on a team where you can trust everybody in any shape or form. We have a good amount of speed as well on the bases. We don’t really have anyone who is overly slow.”

At the Canada Cup event from July 7 to 13 in Surrey, B.C., Manitoba went 5-0 in pool play and 2-2 in the playoffs, which included a loss to the eventual tournament winner, Chinese Taipei U18.

“We’ve watched Team Sask play, and we’ve watched Team Ontario,” Charles said. “Only Ontario is in our pool, and then we have a bunch of unknowns. I don’t really know what the expectation is. Hopefully we can pull out some wins.”

McKay is a little more optimistic.

“I think we’re going to do pretty well. We played exhibition games against Team B.C., which was not bad, and we played against Team Sask and watched Team Ontario,” said McKay, who pitches and plays first base. “Looking at the competition, I I think we have a damn good chance.”

The identification process for Team Manitoba began in 2023 with 91 players, with the roster being whittled down to 24 athletes in March. That number was subsequently cut to 18, with players then being notified in January if they were on the final roster of 15 or an affiliate player.

Only players born in 2006 or later are eligible.

“It’s been a very long process, and there were times when it was high stress because you don’t know what was going to happen,” Solomon said. “They formatted it very well.”

The day Solomon found out she had made the team, she was in Russell with her basketball team for the Lady Trojans basketball tournament. They went out for a team lunch, but she knew she had a call coming she simply had to take.

“I went out to the truck, and we had the talk,” Solomon said. “They told me everything they needed from me and why I was making the team, and then I went back in. I wasn’t allowed to tell anyone, so I was biting my tongue at lunch.”

She had to sit on the news for a week until the final roster was released.

The Games, which will feature about 5,000 athletes in 15 sports from all 13 provinces and territories, will be held from Aug. 8 to 25.

While the Westman trio will certainly be busy when they’re in Newfoundland, the trip itself is a nice bonus. In a neat side plot, the Westman trio will head to the North Dakota State College of Science (NDSCS) in Wahpeton four days after they return from the Summer Games to play college softball for the Wildcats.

“I’m excited,” said Charles, who has mostly been playing left field but also some centre field. “I’ve never been to the East Coast, so I’m happy to go out there, and I’m excited for the competition, a higher level of ball.”

McKay has previously visited the Maritimes, participating in the North American Indigenous Games in Halifax in 2023. She’s excited to head back again.

“I think the atmosphere is going to be wild,” McKay said. “Everybody is competing against each other, and we’ll get to represent our province and our communities.”

pbergson@brandonsun.com