UNITY — Unity Minor Ball was awarded the first ever Sask. Baseball Minor Ball Club of the Year Award at Sask. Baseball’s annual meeting and awards ceremony held Oct. 20 in Saskatoon.
Don Robertson was also honoured with an outstanding service award
Accepting the UMB award were coaches Gerald Duhaime, David Weber, Dan Feser and Rene Feser.
The award recognizes a program that maintains quality facilities while offering a full range of programs guided by dedicated board members, players, coaches and parents.
“Congratulations to all involved, past or present, with minor ball in Unity, says president Regan L’Heureux.
“This is a community award and, being we are the first community to receive the award, is a great honour.”
L’Heureux cited the organization’s long list of championships, solid reputation for hosting major events and focus on keeping facilities in first-rate condition as factors in the award.
The award citation states:
“As a member of Baseball Sask., Unity continues to be an active baseball centre. With a population that has held steady at around 2,516 for the last 10 years, Unity continues to show strong numbers of both players and umpires annually. This has been consistent for the last number of years with the predictable minor ups and downs solely attributed to differing populations of certain age groups within the community.
“Unity works hard to be sure they always enter teams in provincials championships for each of the minor division age groups. That trend continued in 2018 with Unity entering at least one team in a provincial championship in all the minor age groups.
“To ensure the players are kept engaged and are learning the basic skills while playing the game, Unity endeavours to provide the necessary tools to its volunteer coaches by way of local clinics. 2018 saw the centre host a coaching clinic in May that was facilitated by Kevin Kusch.”
The citation also notes UMB applied to host provincial championships for all four minor divisions they entered to play in and hosted mosquito, bantam, and midget divisions in 2018. Noted were positive comments received about the organization and operation of those tournaments.
Also noted was the development of a grassroots Learn to Play program combining baseball and softball to ensures future players get off to a positive start.
The program also cultivates young umpires through training and mentorship.
Robertson was honoured for his dedication and success within the program. He has coached successful teams from minor to adult for many years.
According to the citation, “From his beginnings with the Unity Panthers he then joined forces with Kindersley to form the very successful UK Royals team that have attended a number of minor and junior Western Canadian championships.”
Robertson has also volunteered to help at Softball Sask.. District ID Camps as well as assisting to supervise both provincial and Western Canadian championships. He has also served on the host committee for numerous provincial and Western Canadian championships hosted by Unity Minor Ball.
As a long-serving member of town council, he has been key to the many recreation facility upgrades that took place in Unity over the years.
