U19 Magic skip provincials for final road trip

In their first year back after some time away, the under-19 Westman Magic are defining success a little bit differently than normal.

The team, which is coached by Hailey Clark and Landon Desjardin, decided to skip provincials this weekend and instead enter the Red River Rage tournament in Fargo, N.D., with one last weekend of AAA softball for the graduating players.

“Landon and I’s biggest goal was just to give girls time on the diamond,” Clark said. “We’ll keep showing up, and whoever wants to come and get the reps for whatever comes next, we’ll be here for them.

“It was huge for the Magic to have a team again this year. It’s super exciting.”

The U19 age group is traditionally one when athletes begin to fall away to jobs, relationships and other interests, and it has hit the Magic hard. The program had a U19 team in 2023, and had a couple of players on a combined team with other regions that played under the Magic moniker in 2024 and 2025.

Brynna Andrew, 18, who is heading to Brandon University in the fall, wanted one more chance to play high-level softball, and got it when organizers managed to cobble together enough players for a team.

“It was very important,” Andrew said. “There are lots of girls who are going to school next year so they wanted a place to play. They are girls who have loved playing AAA ball their whole life and wanted to continue to play right up until they couldn’t anymore, so it’s very important to have some type of team so we could have some type of competition.”

The squad has a heavy Brandon presence, with local players Andrew, Kendra Grift, Macey McIvor, Emily Beckwith, Olivia Koscielny, Layla Desjardin and Kennedy Smith joined by Alexa Banga of Virden, Kennedy Birch of Boissevain, McCanna Wiesner of Killarney, and a pair of imports, Taytum Worms of Stephenfield and Madison Judd of Moosomin, Sask.

Andrew, Grift, McIvor, Beckwith and Banga are all remain from the major players on the U15 Magic team that hosted nationals back in 2023.

“It was sad because you make friends over the years and get really close with lots of these girls,” Andrew said of her former teammates who have fallen away from the sport. “To have them not playing with you anymore is sad.”

In the younger age groups, the teams never seem to change by too much, with the same players earning spots and building chemistry as they advance through the U13, U15 and U17 ranks.

But with the turnover at U19, it’s an almost entirely new squad.

“There are quite a few different girls, younger girls, new girls, so it is different trying to figure out where girls fit in because you have your girls who are solid and have their positions and it’s trying to fit in different puzzle pieces and make a team,” Andrew said.

Desjardin added although they hadn’t played together before, she knew most of the faces when the season started, and liked the people as she got to know them.

“We’ve all played against each other at least a time or two,” Desjardin said. “There are a couple of younger girls coming up but they’ve obviously done a very good job playing with us. Coming together, we’ve done a great job.

“It’s a great group of girls. A lot of the out-of-town girls, we’ve played against them since they were little. They’re still familiar faces.”

It hasn’t been an easy season for the Magic, who went 3-11 in league play and are 5-16 overall.

Desjardin, 18, who is committed to play volleyball at Assiniboine College in the fall, said the team has defined itself by a lot more than its record.

“I think it’s been a very successful season,” Desjardin said. “I think the girls who are going further definitely got their reps in and we had a fun season. For those of us that this is our last season, it was a very fun season and a nice last hurrah.”

Andrew, Desjardin and Koscielny are the team’s pitchers, and they’ve had to do a little bit of extra work because of the group behind them. One of the challenges of blending together a new group is finding where everyone belongs, and that’s involved some growing pains.

“We have some really talented players who are going to be going on to college next year, so it’s really exciting to put those pieces into play and get them ready for hopefully the next level,” Clark said. “That’s kind of been our focus this year, as well as having some girls who are in new positions just based on the group we have this year.

“It’s been a learning curve with a lot of new faces this year but it’s been awesome to put it together.”

The team’s biggest strength may lie with its bats. They’ve been able to score runs this season, although like most teams, that can dry up against the wrong pitcher.

“We have a very strong lineup,” Clark said. “It’s been super exciting. When their bats are hot, it’s scary to make the lineup and know what that pitcher is going to be facing. We can string it together but we’ve had some slumps when it comes to some of these top pitchers in our league.”

They won’t be seeing any of them on the weekend.

The four-team U19 provincials started Thursday in Winnipeg, but the Magic will instead be heading south to face the Cass Trail Blazers, Brainerd Warriors 18U and International Falls Ice Cats on Saturday at the American event, which has 13 teams sorted into three divisions.

“I think it will be a really fun tournament,” Desjardin said. “It’s nice to go down to the States and mix it up a little bit. I don’t think a lot of us are interested in provincials because we don’t want to go to westerns and stuff.”

For Clark, it will be a chance to wrap up what she and her co-coach Landon Desjardin have considered an incredible success.

“Our whole season has been what’s next for these girls,” Clark said. “For some of them this is the end, and for some of them this is the beginning of chapter two. We’re just trying to get the most out of the reps they have.”

» pbergson@brandonsun.com