Baseball diamonds across Lethbridge have welcomed a wave of new players, but the sport hasn’t always been this popular in the Alberta city.
Shauna Gruninger has been with Southwest Little League for eight years, including four as president. She has seen her share of ups and downs in registration numbers, due to the many different options when it comes to summer sports.
Over the past few years though, Gruninger says Lethbridge has seen an increase in players taking an interest in baseball.
“We started to see, about three or four years ago, where everything kind of started. It does help that the Toronto Blue Jays are doing really good too,” Gruninger said.
“Just from this year to last year, we have had around a 30 to 40 per cent increase of kids.”
While Lethbridge has seen a noticeable growth, so have many leagues around the area.
Lethbridge Bulls President Kevin Kvame has been involved with little league baseball since the 1980s. He says not only are registration numbers up across southern Alberta, but attendance at Bulls’ games have seen a steady rise as well.
“We have seen some increase in all of our little leagues in southern Alberta. Even with Bulls attendance, you can see the sport growing.”
Teams like the Bulls have made a positive impact on the growth of the game in Lethbridge, as they give the community an opportunity to see elite players up close.
Local Lethbridge Elks’ outfielder Wyatt Tomalty has played in Lethbridge baseball leagues his entire career.
He says the baseball community in Lethbridge is incredibly welcoming and supportive.
“The baseball community in Lethbridge is really great,” Tomalty said.
“There’s a lot of people who are willing to help out and volunteer, you know, clean the diamonds and coach the kids.”
Everyone involved hopes to see continuing growth for the Lethbridge baseball scene. With summer on the horizon, they expect to see tons of people at the ballpark.