There was a big visit this afternoon in Saint-Étienne-des-Grès. Indeed, the Minor Baseball Association was one of the six municipalities in Quebec visited by the Toronto Blue Jays in the last 14 days.
This enriching adventure that young baseball players from the region, aged between 8 and 13, were able to experience would not have been possible without the vigilance of Marcelyn Ricard, president of the Saint-Étienne-des-Grès Baseball Association.
“I was in my email box this winter and I took the time to read each one of them. It’s a great thing because I came across this email so I decided to apply for the application, by registering. We were proud to have been selected because there were only six municipalities chosen in Quebec.”
“When I found out we had it, I gave our association two weeks of priority. We needed 100 young people, so I then opened it to Mauricie. Finally, Baseball Québec helped me find the fifteen or so young people missing in the surrounding regions.”
The young people were treated to various baseball clinics, in groups. The exercises were explained in English, then translated by the volunteers.
“They arrived here with their team of coaches and they asked us to have translators. My daughter is there, on the field, as well as volunteer coaches from Saint-Étienne-des-Grès. They separated the young people into their age groups. It’s crazy! On the field, there were 96 smiles that we could see,” added the president.
“It’s wonderful to see the kids. They all leave with a Blue Jays jersey and cap. It’s our only (major league baseball) team in Canada and they decide to visit the provinces so we take advantage of it! For my part, I don’t have any children registered in minor league baseball so I really did it out of passion and it’s gratifying to see them on the baseball field today,” he concludes.
Accredited by the National Coaching Certification Program, Blue Jays Academy coaches have also been trained to teach youth baseball using the Blue Jays method.
2024-07-03 20:13:25
#Blue #Jays #visiting.. #SaintÉtiennedesGrès
