An incredible season for the North Shore Twins organization officially came to a close last weekend as the club’s bantam team placed fifth at the Canadian U15 national championships.
The Twins were in tough as a club team – most of the other provinces were represented by all-star teams selected through provincial tryouts. The bantams went 2-3 in the tournament, finishing off with a 13-4 win over Nova Scotia in the fifth-place game.
“It’s always a good learning experience, it helps kids understand where they are in terms of the landscape of playing at a national level,” North Shore Twins bantam and junior team general manager Dave Speers told the North Shore News. “Down the road they’ll be competing against those same kids if they have aspirations of playing for Team Canada. It was a really good experience for our kids.”
The bantams may not have hit the podium at nationals, but the North Shore Twins organization hit it out of the park at every other opportunity this season. In 2017 the Twins became the first ever B.C. Premier Baseball League club to win provincial gold at the bantam, junior and senior levels. That triple play still has Twins players, coaches and managers buzzing, said Speers.
“It feels like a bit of a dream, to be honest, to have three teams win the provincial championship in one year,” said Speers. “It’s a lot of hard work just for one team to do it, let alone three. It still feels a little bit surreal, but it happened. As coaches and general managers who run the program, we’re not even sure if something like this could happen again. In theory it can, but it’s a pretty tall task for an organization in the Premier Baseball League to pull something off like this.”
Other key members of the club include senior head coach Brooks McNiven, general manager Rick Elstone, junior head coach Josh Hundal and bantam head coach and director of baseball ops and player development John Haar. Many people played a part in the club’s success, but it’s Haar, a legendary coach and member of the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame, who sets the standard for the whole organization, said Speers.
“He’s our foundation,” said Speers. “John, you can’t say enough. Everybody that you talk to has the utmost respect for him and what he’s done for the game of baseball in Canada and in British Columbia. … He’s able to get the best out of not only his players but also the other coaches. He demands guys put in the work, and if you do put in that work you’ll see the results.”
For many years Haar coached the senior Twins but he now focuses on developing the younger players. When kids first come into the organization they may not know who he is, but they sure learn quickly.
“The kids have started to grasp and understand who John is and what he’s done in the game of baseball for Canada,” said Speers. “You can see it in practice situations – their eyes are very focused on what he is saying and what he is asking of them.”
It won’t be long before the Twins will be right back out on the practice field for tryouts for next season. Before that, however, everyone will take a couple of weeks to remember a season for the ages.
“It’s something that we’re very proud of as an organization,” said Speers. “We certainly put a lot of time and energy and effort into preparing the kids mentally and physically to be able to perform and be their best at the end of the season when it matters most.”
