Principia's head softball coach, Ken Leavoy is once again coaching and scouting for the Canadian National team during their main competitive season in the summer. It has been a pleasure to follow the team through coach Leavoy's updates! Below you will find a sneak peek into coach Leavoy's summer as he travels and coaches with the Canadian National softball team.
Leavoy's summer started out in southern Ontario at an eastern evaluation and selection camp. The coaches chose 12 athletes from that group to attend the final camp. Leavoy then headed out to Vancouver for the western evaluation and selection camp and they chose 12 more athletes. The final camp followed that and they picked the team of 18 from those 24 athletes.
The Canadian National team had a few exhibition and intra squad games before heading out for the competitive part of the season.
They first competed in Irvine, California at the US World Cup tournament where they did very well! They finished 2nd after upsetting the #1 team in the world (Japan), beating them 11-4! Before losing a close battle to the USA in the finals, the Canadian team beat Japan, Mexico, Phillipines, Venezuela and Chinese Taipei.
The team then flew north to Vancouver to play in the Canadian Open International tournament. Things continued to go well there. They lost two close games to Japan and split with the USA. So far this season they have been able to win games against the #1 and #2 ranked teams in the world. They ended up finishing 3rd at the Canadian Open.
Leavoy then flew to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan and began the first of 2 days of a junior camp. There they had to work with the rainy schedule, but were able to complete as much training as they could. After a few days rest at home in St. Louis, Leavoy then will head to Toronto where the National team will gather again after a 10 day rest and recovery period so they can start training again. They will train for a few days and then play a series of games against Puerto Rico.
The team will wrap up their season when they fly to Amsterdam, Netherlands on August 9th for the ISF World Championships. This is the most prestigious tournament in softball; it includes 16 teams from around the world that have qualified for this event. Coach Leavoy comments, "I like our (Canada's) chances of earning a medal this year as the team has been playing really well, it should be a really exciting tournament!"
Stay posted as the Canadian National team finishes out their season, a follow up press release will be posted!
