The Westlock Wild Pee Wee minor ball team has had a strong start to its season, going 3-2 in its first five provincial seeding tournament games.
The tournament results will determine which tier the team will play in for the rest of the season, said coach Greg Brown.
“They’re doing good,” Brown said. “I’m happy with how they’re going.”
The Wild hosted a round of seeding tournament games May 14-15, with teams from Barrhead, Grande Prairie and Stony Plain making the trip to see where they fit into the provincial hierarchy.
In their first game of the tournament on Saturday morning, the Wild lined up against the Barrhead Yankees.
The game ultimately proved to be not much of a challenge for the Wild, as they defeated their rivals by a convincing 20-6 score.
The second game the Wild played on Saturday evening was not as good a result as the morning’s tilt.
Up against the Grande Prairie Reds, the Wild came out on the short end of the stick, dropping the game 17-4.
Brown said that loss to the Reds isn’t too much of a concern because he feels they’re one of the top teams in the area.
The Wild also played a team from Stony Plain on Sunday evening, but the final score was not available by press time.
With the tournament over, Brown said there are no games currently scheduled for his team. However, he said he has a number of potential exhibition games lined up to keep his players’ skills sharp.
Prior to this home tournament, the Wild traveled to Edmonton May 7-8 to play two other seeding games, beating Sherwood Park and then losing to South Jasper Place. After that, they hosted Barrhead on May 10, and again defeated their rivals.
Although it’s still early in the season, Brown said he feels his team is somewhere in the upper end of the middle of the pack.
“They’re a bunch of young guys, and they’ve improved a lot,” he said. “I’m happy with their progress.”
He also said the team’s 3-2 record is pretty good for the competition they’ve faced.
“We’re alright. A 3-2 record is alright,” he said.
“It would be nice to win them all but that’s not going to happen.”
There are still a few more seeding games to play, Brown said, after which the team will be placed in a tier with other teams who sport similar records. Once the seeding is complete, he said he will re-evaluate his team.
All in all, he said the Wild are still on track to compete hard in the provincial tournament in July.
