WAVERLEY: Two girl baseball players from the Waverley/Fall River area have been named to the provincial Senior Women’s team that will represent the province at the 2022 Canadian Championships in Stonewall, Mb.
Leah Copeland and Julia Konigshofer were selected by Baseball N.S. from tryouts to be among the 15 players that makeup the roster. It also includes players from N.B., PEI, and NL as only N.S. sends a squad to the championships, scheduled for July 20-24.
On a beautiful May day, Copeland and Konigshofer spoke about making the team as they looked out at the field at McDonald Sports Park in Waverley.
Konigshofer is excited about the opportunity.
“I’m really excited to have a national with this great group of girls,” she said. “It’s probably going to be my favourite team I play on this summer.”
She said her and Copeland have been playing together for about three years but haven’t had a chance to do so at nationals because of COVID-19.
“This is our first big nationals together,” said Konigshofer. “It’s going to be a great time.”
Konigshofer and Copeland said both have been training everyday at One Last Rep Sports Training.
She said it was hard to grind it out with tournaments cancelled because of the pandemic.
“Last couple of years was really hard to train when you had nothing to look forward too,” Konigshofer, who is amped to get started, said. “It’s making us work a little harder knowing there is a national this year.”
Copeland, a catcher, is also excited. She’s playing on the U-16 and U-21 teams.
“It was one of my goals in the off-season to be able to make this team,” the seemingly shy Copeland said. “It shows that all my hard work has paid off. I’m really excited to get started.”
She said the roster has a lot of talented players and getting the experience of playing and learning from them is something she’s looking forward to taking advantage of.
“I’m looking forward to learning from them,” the Grade 11 Lockview High student said.
Copeland is thrilled to be on a team with a friend like Konigshofer. She knows she has to work on her overall skills.
“That us really cool,” she said. “You don’t usually get those opportunities often with the provincial programs.”
She isn’t the tallest on the team—possibly being the smallest, but she looks at the advantage that has.
“Small but mighty,” said Copeland with a chuckle.
The other players on the team are as follows:
Ellie Macaulay – NS
Jenna Jackson – NS
Jillian Stymest – NS
Ally Stymiest – NB
Avery Smith- NS
Carly Jackson – NS
Jaida Lee – NFLD
Molly Stright – NB
Makayla Addington – NS
Kate Hagen – NS
Tessa Hood – PEI
Rachel Boone – NS
Abby Bush- NS.
