 Taking a Look in PG
River Kings watching from sidelines
Many Native teams are gearing up for this weekend's big tournament as a warm up the annual Native Canadians that will take place later this summer in Kamloops - but not Len Potskin (left), long-time coach of the Prince George River Kings.
No team has more questions than the River Kings who have won 9 Native Canadian Championships since the team was formed twelve years ago.
The River Kings won't be playing in the tournament but will be scouting the event and looking to fill holes left when Chad Ghostkeeper and Evan Potskin left the River Kings to play for Horse Lake.
The Thunder will not be making the trip to Prince George as they are attending the Camrose Fury tournament.
This is will be the first major re-build the River Kings will be making because the won the previous six Native Canadian Championships in a row, the River Kings will be looking at bolstering their line-up and for many of the players that are in Prince George this weekend know that in the River Kings coach Len Potskin and his staff will be watching all the games closely to see if there is some talent that they may aquire for the championships. Several players that call BC home have what it takes to get the Kings back in the hunt and some of these players are playing for the Westbank Cardinals which have some familiar names such as Matt Underwood, Lyod Eli and Rob Epp.
The 42 Annual Canada Day All-Native Fastpitch Tournament is scheduled for the upcoming weekend in Prince George and has
an assorted mix of teams that will be measuring themselves against other native teams across Western Canada. There will be
over 20 Men's and Women's that will converge at Spruce City Stadium and the adjacent fields from three different provinces, some of the teams use this as a way to have their community to get together in a positive and competitive means while other teams use this
as a building block to vie for the Native Canadian Championships.
The tournament history is rich in the pitchers, teams and characters that has graced Spruce City Stadium over the years. Last year
Darren Zack and the Horse Lake Thunder went undefeated in the event that had another pitcher (Craig Pidcock)that may ring a bell with fastpitch fans in BC. Joe Basaraba, Grant Bennett, Morris Sauve and Terry Bone are other throwers that played on some good teams such as the host Prince George River Kings, Vancouver Mustangs and even the Ochapawace Thunder that made regular visits in the early 90's.
'This is the first year that the event has had a Women's division in many years and we hope that this brings more people out to the park' says organizer Sheldon Bjorklund who is in his second year of coordinating the tournament that takes several months of planning.
With tournaments like this coming to ball parks in remote regions it should only improve the chances of athletes like Chad Ghostkeeper and Jessin Potskin who were both named to the Canada's National rosters for the summer. Potskin along with three other native players from Saskatchewan are competing at the under 19 World Championships in Whitehorse. This may be the first test that the River Kings will be monitoring to help the squad to get back on top.
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