For the boys on the major peewee Brampton Royals select baseball team, the 2017 season will go down as a career year.
The 13-year-olds not only won two tournaments this summer, but they were also among the top teams in their division. It was a win that they thought would have sent them on to the next phase of competition.
“At the end, they were jumping up (yelling) ‘Yes! We’re in provincials now,'” head coach Steve Edwards recalled.
But smiles turned to frowns and tears amongst players and parents when Edwards hit them with the bad news.
“It breaks my heart. I had to sit down and tell them, ‘You just beat the best team in your loop twice… and now guys, you’re not going [to the provincial championship],” he said.
The championship hopes were dashed not because the Royals didn’t earn the opportunity, but because of lost paperwork. In order to compete in provincials, team administrators must send an application form and a cheque to the tournament organizers, the Baseball Ontario Select Division.
Edwards claimed he sent the materials and provided Global News pictures of the signed form and cheque, proof he said he took the necessary steps. But he said the papers got lost in the mail.
Baseball Ontario Select Division disputed that claim though. The organization insisted they never got the application and that the Royals didn’t follow-up until well after the deadline. Now, the baseball body said it’s too late. It’s a decision that has left the players disappointed and feeling like their season ended too abruptly.
“We just really want go to the provincials since we already won our division,” left-fielder Izays Peart said.
“We played the entire summer in hopes of playing in provincials and we achieved it just to be let down,” catcher Vito Rego said.
Marlon McCollin, a father of one of the players on the team, said he had to walk away and take a deep breath when the boys were notified their season was all but over.
Other parents said the idea of applying for one of the year’s most important tournaments through regular mail is fraught with risk and that the process should be changed to allow online applications.
READ MORE: Jays alumni bring their skills to annual Halifax baseball camp
For its part, Baseball Ontario Select Division said it’s just enforcing its own long-standing policies and that there are contingencies in the event of lost applications.
“We do have electronic communication and we could have been contacted,” Baseball Ontario Select Division director David Black said. “I wish we had been contacted but we weren’t.”
With two weeks until provincials start, the peewee select Royals have asked Baseball Ontario Select Division to reconsider or allow them to play in a qualifying game to get in. But once again, the baseball association said it’s not possible.
“The qualifiers have been completed,” Black said.
The team have launched the hashtag #LetBramptonGo on social media in an attempt to rally support and somehow change Baseball Ontario Select Division’s mind. Although it’s unlikely, Edwards said he’s hoping for some kind of miracle.
“These boys deserve it. Blame the coach, that’s fine. But these guys, it could be their only chance to go to provincials.”
Comments