Mitch Calvert
The Sabaskong Cubs honoured a former teammate prior to their game against the Big Island Huskies last week—raising a banner for Rick Copenace, who passed away suddenly following a Rainy River District Fastball League game last May.
Copenace, who died of coronary arteritis (an inflammation of the arteries), was an active member of the community and left behind three children, Latasha, Nickolas, and Ryan.
“He was my co-worker at the day care with me, too, so I was close to him and we spent a lot time together,” Cubs’ manager Frank Shebagegit said.
“He was only 26 and had an undetectable heart condition, very rare, and [his death] shocked the whole league and everyone on the reserve here, including, obviously, his family,” he noted.
“He was a fun-loving guy and a good father,” Shebagegit added.
Copenace lived and breathed sports, and had a passion for the outdoors. Baseball, specifically, ran in his family as both of his parents, Pam and Gus, played themselves.
He started playing at the tender age of 11 with the men’s fastball team based out of Eagle Lake First Nation, and eventually made the transition to playing with his father on the Cubs.
Copenace gravitated to pitching because of his father, and excelled against men twice his age in fastball tournaments growing up.
At age 15, Copenace dominated a tournament in Atikokan and was asked to try out for the under-18 Canadian junior fastball team.
But that’s when his world stopped.
Copenace’s older brother, Gus Jr., suddenly passed away in May, 1999.
Overwhelmed with grief, Copenace’s school and sport aspirations took a back seat. But when grief finally became manageable, he got a job with Onigaming Child Care and started pitching again for the Cubs.
He was on his way to a fulfilling life before last summer’s tragic end.
Sabaskong is hosting a memorial fastball tournament in his honour on June 21-22.
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In RRDFL action at VanJura Stadium here last Thursday, the Barwick Blue Knights kept their unblemished record intact with a testy 4-3 win over the host Sight & Sound Wolves.
The visitors staked themselves to a 4-0 lead through three innings off home runs by Vaughn Wilson and Wes Derksen, but the Wolves cut the deficit in half in the fourth.
Sophomore Logan Allen led off with a double, then newcomer Joel Ashworth beat out an infield single to put two runners on.
Knights’ pitcher JJ Landry struck out the next two batters he faced before Aaron Caul delivered a clutch two-out, two-run double.
John Desaulniers shut down Barwick for the next three innings on the mound for the Wolves, but the hosts only could muster one run the rest of the way to fall to 2-2 on the young season.
In other scores last Thursday, Big Grassy also improved to 3-0 with a 30-2 rout over Sabaskong (0-2) while Big Island (2-1) topped Rainy River (0-3) 12-7.
Last night’s scheduled match-ups included Sight & Sound against Sabaskong, Big Grassy at Barwick in a battle for first place, and Big Island versus Stratton (the results weren’t available by press time).
