The rivalry between Westlock and Barrhead will return to the diamond this summer with the Barrhead Orioles returning to challenge the Westlock Red Lions for area baseball supremacy.
This is the first year Barrhead will be fielding a team in the North Central Alberta Baseball League since 2007, and the first year the Orioles have played since the 2003 season.
For Red Lions’ manager Adam Sawatzky, Barrhead’s return to the fold is welcomed.
“That’ll be exciting for us to have that old rivalry back in place,” he said.
The Red Lions are coming into the 2014 season looking to avenge their defeat in the 2013 league championship series to the Edmonton Blackhawks.
With the majority of the team returning from last year’s squad, Sawatzky said the players’ goal remains the same: make the playoffs.
Considering the team also won the league title in 2012, there is a desire to return to the league championship series for a third-straight year.
“We’d really like to get back there,” he said. “But our definite goal from the start of the year is to make the playoffs.”
With a solid core of 14 players on the roster, with some part-timers bringing the roster to around 17, Sawatzky said a playoff appearance is a strong possibility.
Add in the fact a lot of players are still young and their skills are only just peaking, and his confidence is sky-high.
“We have a very realistic chance of making the playoffs again with such a young team,” he said.
With the team’s season opener scheduled for May 8 in Edmonton, Sawatzky said he and his teammates are in the process of shaking off the rust and getting themselves back in shape.
They’re starting to run and exercise so they can “shed off some of those extra calories,” he said, as well as starting to throw the ball around to loosen up their arms for another season.
“At this point, with a lot of the players, there’s not a lot of teaching left to do,” he said. “It’s just getting back into the swing of things and getting our old habits going again.”
Having Barrhead back in the mix isn’t going to have much of an impact on the Red Lions this year, Sawatzky said, other than being another opponent. Although a few Barrhead-area players joined the Red Lions over the years Barrhead lacked a team, their numbers were never substantial.
In addition, he said he figures he’s the only Red Lion who was playing the last time Barrhead had a team, and he’s heard of only one or two Orioles who played 11 years ago either, meaning there will be a lot of new faces on the diamond.
Not like that will diminish the importance of the games.
“The old rivalry may not be quite the same, but I don’t think it will take us very long to get going again,” Sawatzky said.
