Joey Payeur
She may have new responsibilities but Stacy Patey has that same tingle going down her spine that accompanies the blooming of every fastball season.
Patey recently was elected president of the Rainy River District Women’s Fastball League, which gets down to business on the field with its season-opening night of action this coming Monday.
Taking the reins from now past-president Candy Teeple, the all-star centre-fielder for the Fort Frances Her-icanes is excited to hear the first call of “play ball” echoing around district diamonds as the Northwest Bay Beavers get set to defend their league crown.
“It’s going to be a great season,” Patey predicted.
“We’re getting a lot of younger players out now,” she noted.
“The skill level and competitiveness of the league has really skyrocketed since [it] started up again three years ago, and the pitching is amazing.
“Now with people getting more comfortable at playing at this level, you’re going to see more stealing, more double plays, and other fundamental parts of the game being displayed,” Patey added.
“It’s really anybody’s game.”
The league has added a new team this season with the creation of the Emo Renegades, which includes several players who suited up for the Manitou Blaze last year, including all-star first baseman Laurie Brown and veteran infielder Erin Oltsher.
“Now that we have a team in Emo, we have teams covering the whole district,” Patey remarked.
However, it will remain a 12-team circuit as it was announced last week that the Sabaskong Cougars have folded due to a lack of players.
Two teams will be sporting new names this season, with the Blaze changing their nickname to the T-Birdies in a play on the moniker of the Manitou Thunderbirds men’s team in the Rainy River District Fastball League.
Also switching identities is the Fort Frances Juniors, who will now be known as the Fort Frances Angels.
The RRDWFL usually gets underway after the May long weekend, but this year wanted to expedite its schedule to have it wrapped up by the week of Aug. 22.
“We want to get all the games in,” stressed Patey.
“We don’t want to have the season run too late because the [college] kids start heading back to school in the latter part of August,” she noted.
“It also gets darker earlier as the summer moves along.”
In pre-season league meetings, a code of conduct was established, with the focus being on players respecting each other, the umpires, and others.
“It’s most important for the youth in the league to have something like this set in place so they know what we expect from them,” Patey said.
“I don’t think there’s a lot of issues in the league along those lines, but respect is something that we teach our kids so we should play under that same idea,” she reasoned.
Teams also agreed to follow Softball Canada rules and mandate this season that all players under age 17 required to wear a batting helmet with an attached face mask while at the plate.
Any pitcher in that age category also must wear at least a mask when taking the mound.
“We want to protect our kids,” stressed Patey.
“We do have even adult women players that wear them when they play,” she added.
Despite the typically unpredictable weather in the district, the RRDWFL largely was able to avoid forfeits and unplayed games last season—a trend Patey sees continuing this year.
“I don’t think forfeits are much of a problem for us,” she remarked.
“Everyone’s pretty committed to playing and we also have provided more make-up dates, and even the option of playing on weekends, so teams can get all their games in.”
Patey was encouraged with the positive momentum the league has built over its first three seasons after returning from a 30-year absence, and believes the situation only will improve this year.
“The district has always been a fastball district,” she noted.
“It was popular back then until it fell apart and went through a long stretch without women’s fastball, and now the women have teams again,” she added.
“There’s a lot of amazing players in our district.”
