Wheat City Classic continues to grow

The largest-ever edition of the Wheat City Classic softball tournament kicks off today with a full slate of games in three age divisions.

The third-year event, which is hosted by the local Westman Magic AAA program and based out of the Ashley Neufeld Softball Complex, has grown from 14 teams in two divisions in 2024 to 28 teams last summer to 31 this year. It also includes games at Steve Clark Field, River-2 and the North End north diamond.

Joel Whiteside has been a key part of the Wheat City Classic for all three events.

“It’s been extremely gratifying for us as a committee to see it grow to what it is now,” Whiteside said. “The big thing with this event is that the money that is raised goes right back to the athletes and their families. It’s not going to the Magic board by any means, all these proceeds that are raised goes back to these teams that are hopefully travelling for their westerns or nationals.

“It’s a nice way for the board to put in some effort and see everybody who steps up to run this — as we have more and more teams coming, there tends to be more things to look after and possibly more headaches to deal with — but the help we get from the Magic community, it sure makes it feel like it isn’t a huge task.”

There will be 12 under-13 teams, 10 U15 clubs and nine in the U17 division after there was a late cancellation.

The Wheat City Classic was started to replace the Manitoba Premier Softball League’s International Classic, which was held in Brandon in 2022 and 2023 after a long run at Headingley’s John Blumberg Softball Complex.

The inaugural Wheat City Classic in 2024 featured eight teams in the U15 division and six in the U17 age group, with Central Energy beating the Moose Jaw Ice 8-1 in the U15 final and the Twin City Angels blanking Central 2-0 in the U17 final.

The Classic grew to 28 teams in 2025 after expanding to include a U13 division.

In the U13 final, the Steinbach-based Eastman Wildcats beat the Magic 14-11. The U15 and U17 finals, however, were cancelled due to rain, with the plan that they would be determined in a future regular-season matchup.

Eastman later beat Central Energy to claim the U15 title, while the U17 division game between Central and the Interlake Phillies was never held.

This year, the U13 division has six Manitoba teams and six Saskatchewan teams, with every squad playing all six clubs from the other province. The top two teams advance to the playoffs.

In the U15 division, there are two five-team pools, so they have four round-robin games and could play six if they win in the playoffs.

The U17 division has three, three-team pools and, including playoffs, will play five games.

The U15 and U17 age groups play seven-inning games, with the U13s on the field for six innings, but all games have a time limit of one hour, 45 minutes. If a game is tied but there is time remaining, the teams can play one complete extra inning. Otherwise, the game is a tie.

There are also mercy rules in effect.

Registration opened up in early January, with U15 and U17 drawing the necessary number of teams but U13 developing a waiting list.

“As it gets closer to the tournament, everything ramps up,” Whiteside said of the work load. “Every day it ramps up a little more with things that are getting done and finalized.”

The gold-medal games are all set for Sunday afternoon, with the U13s at 1:30, the U15s at 4 and the U17s at 2 p.m., and the U15s at 3 p.m. All games are scheduled 15 minutes apart on each diamond to allow the staff to treat the infields.

One nice thing for the organizers is the repeat business they’ve received from Saskatchewan. This year, Twin City (U13/U15/U17), the Southeast Sun Devils (U13/U15/U17), White Butte Storm (U13/U15/U17), Moose Jaw Ice (U13/U15/U17), Regina Royals (U13) and Saskatoon Raiders (U13) made the trip east.

“It’s extremely positive to see these teams sign up year after year since the inaugural tournament,” Whiteside said, adding they are also elite teams with excellent players, which provides a good challenge for the Manitoba athletes.

“Some of these teams, I hope they always sign up because they’ve been so great to deal with right from day one. When I see teams like White Butte and Twin City and Moose Jaw and Southeast continue to sign up from out of province, it makes me so happy.”

The growing tournament requires dozens and dozens of volunteers, with parents for every Magic player working in a variety of capacities including in the canteen, at the gate or at a raffle table.

The tournament committee and Magic board of directors are now one and the same, and include Lorry Hart (U13 convener), Jamie Barkley (U15 convener), Vicki Duncan-Gagnon (U17 convener), Marc Lyver (coach development and recruitment, and he is also president of Softball Brandon), Arjana Eilers (player development and recruitment), Whiteside (communications), Hailey Clark (treasurer), Amy Grift (secretary) and Adam Hartman (vice president).

Whiteside said there is an argument to be made that 24 teams is actually the perfect number for the event, because that would allow them to play every game in the Ashley Neufeld Softball Complex.

“It would be an easier thing to run because it would keep everything contained in the complex, unless you split it into two different weekends, which could require double the amount of volunteers to split it up,” Whiteside said. “I’m not sure if we’re going to continue to expand. It does seem harder and harder to fit games in with the amount of teams that are coming. We love to showcase the Ashley Neufeld complex for every team and have every team play all their games within that.

“Having the number of teams we do doesn’t allow for that so we do have to step outside the complex.”

Whiteside it’s hard to overestimate the draw of the facility itself, which opened in 2017. He remembers the reaction he saw as players and their families arrived early to look at the complex prior to the 2023 national U15 championship.

“The fields are kept in immaculate condition,” Whiteside added. “The fields are unbelievably nice to play on, and it’s just because the people who work there care so much about it. It makes hosting a tournament a lot easier to draw teams if they’ve ever been to that complex. They want to come back.”

The facility had a late hitch earlier this week when heavy winds pushed down the big fence on the Rotary Diamond. It has been temporarily fixed for this weekend and will be permanently fixed next week.

Another draw is the skills competition, which takes place on Saturday evening from 8 to 9:30 p.m. on the Boston Pizza diamond.

It was a massive hit in 2024 but a casualty of a rain-soaked weekend in 2025 as organizers struggled to get the games played during a chilly, wet and windy weekend.

“The teams that participated in it, which was everybody who attended the event, absolutely loved it,” Whiteside said. “It was the highlight I thought. It was great ball and everything else but I believe that people that participated in that and got to watch that skills competition really will remember that for how much fun it was and the camaraderie there was between the teams.”

There are four events. They include a four-person throwing relay, a two-person fastest running relay event with each teammate sprinting two bases, a catcher’s accuracy throw and a home run derby.

Organizers tinkered with the popular home run derby, putting out a row of pylons that will signal a hit worth one point. Clearing the main fence is three points and driving one over the outer wall is five points.

There is one other big change this year besides the number of teams.

The tournament has moved back a week from its traditional spot on the first weekend of June to avoid high school provincials. This was typically the AA showcase weekend in Brandon, but that event has moved to Steinbach, where Whiteside will be watching one of his daughters in action.

Lyver and Hartman will serve as co-directors since Whiteside will be away.

Admission will be charged at the gate, with weekend passes available for $25 or $10 per day. Anyone under 18 is free, and admission isn’t charged for games outside the Ashley Neufeld Softball Complex.

» pbergson@brandonsun.com