The first major fastball championship since the pandemic will be held in Prince George over the long weekend.
The Canadian Native Fastball Championships will be in town, the last time they were hosted in Prince George was 2016.
The Championships have been running since 1974 and have become “one of Canada’s most prestigious sporting events in Native communities” according to the Canadian Native Fastball Association (CNFA)
The tournament normally pulls 1,100 athletes and 5,000 visitors annually.
Prince George initially won the 2019 bid to host the 2020 tournament, then again for 2021, and are now finally able to run in 2022 in a more post-COVID world.
Harley Desjarlais, a Chairperson on the Organizing Committee, says this year’s tournament will feature over 50 teams from all across the country, down a little bit from previous years.
Desjarlais explains they “are the first major fastball championship dealing with that,” and added “we’re from Prince George, we’re going to make lemonade out of lemons.”
One of the lemons could be heat, but Desjarlais is not too worried, saying “for what we are doing, heat is probably less of a concern than rain. That’s about the worst thing you can get. We can work with the heat.”
The host team, the Big Guy Lake Kings, are comprised of members mostly from Prince George, but will have some talent flown in from Vancouver and Ontario as well.
The tournament schedule draw will be done at 7:00 tonight, and a full weekend schedule will follow.
For more information on the tournament, click here.