Back together as a team playing baseball after the Fort McMurray fires was the victory of a lifetime for the bantam AAA Oil Giants.
“It’s moving for me and these boys down the road will not forget this weekend,” said Adem Campbell, head coach of the Oil Giants, after the three-game weekend series at Legion Memorial Park. “They competed being out for a couple of weeks. They showed a lot of resiliency. I’m so proud of them.”
But to win that first game, in extra innings against the St. Albert Cardinals, was too good to be true.
“It was awesome. It was definitely an emotional win for sure after a two-week hiatus, so I was pretty proud of them,” Campbell said. “It’s not one I’m going to forget. I kept the lineup card. I made sure that we hung on to it. That’s a keeper for me.”
Saturday’s 6-4 decision was a much needed stress release for the players.
“It gave them normality back to life if you know what I mean,” Campbell said. “Coming out and playing ball not only took a little pressure off them, but for our community and all the families that were here supporting us it was just huge.
“We’re here with the rest of the province now.”
The peewee AAA Oil Giants were also in St. Albert for games against the Parkland Twins, Okotoks Dawgs and Red Deer Braves while other Fort McMurray teams were competing elsewhere in the province.
“We’ve had a tremendous amount of support, not only from the baseball community but from the province and country in general so this is great to see them out here competing. Not only are they here representing their community, they’re representing their families and their schools,” Campbell said. “Being able to come out and play a child’s game and enjoy the game of baseball is something sometimes we take for granted and I hope this opportunity to be out here this weekend really gives them that sense of value and appreciation for this game. It’s a wonderful game and a beautiful game with a lot of brotherhood and camaraderie.”
Campbell was determined to be reunited with the players he has coached since peewee.
“As soon as we were evacuating the first thing that was coming to mind was we’ve got to keep this season going,” said the coach at the Father Mercredi School baseball academy. “The majority of our players were in the Edmonton area, one in Grande Prairie, one in Lloyd and one in Lac La Biche. Myself and a couple of other players are down in the Calgary area, so it was a challenge but I told them (Saturday) it wouldn’t matter where I was on the planet, if we were taking the field we were going to be there together.
“It’s kind of a brotherhood. These guys are best friends and family off the field so to get them out here was huge.”
Saturday morning started with a shopping trip to United Cycle, followed by a brief practice before the doubleheader against the Cardinals.
“Baseball Alberta did some fundraising and United Cycle gave us a discount so myself and another couple of players on the team that had their homes taken went. Anything the kids needed they were fully supplied with. It was awesome,” said Campbell, who was met by Fort McMurray minor baseball president Kevin Breen and director Andrew Swagers at United Cycle. “Once again, the support we have received has been incredible.”
When it came time to play ball, right-hander Zander Dalling was handed the ball for the team’s first game back on the diamond.
“It was kind of emotional actually with all that happened. To come out and be the starter it was a good experience,” said Dalling, 15. “I wanted to come out last weekend and play ball but we were all too scattered so I’m glad that we got to come out this weekend. It just takes your mind off everything with the fire.”
The Oil Giants dropped the next two contests by scores of 7-6 and 9-5 but Dalling was far from discouraged, especially after the extra-inning thriller.
“That was crazy,” said the third baseman and outfielder. “For not practicing for a while, we actually did pretty good this weekend. We made a few errors but that’s going to happen in any game.”
Dalling was enjoying life as a Grade 9 student playing baseball when the raging fires forced residents to flee Fort McMurray. His family stayed in a camper at Wandering River before driving to Edmonton to be with friends.
“It was crazy. I didn’t expect a fire to get that big that quick. We had everything packed just in case but I didn’t think we would actually have to evacuate,” he said.
Sean Erickson, head coach of the Cardinals, addressed the Oil Giants after their last game Sunday.
“I just told them obviously we were impressed with how they came out and played under the adversity but we expected them to come out and battle because this is what they love to do and for them to come out here and had fun it’s kind of a release,” Erickson said.
“What really impressed me was obviously how hard they’ve worked previous to this year and in past years because they did such a good job of executing all the little things that help you win baseball games despite not being on the field for a couple of weeks. It’s easy to come out with intensity but that wears off. They came in here and battled us in every single inning in all those three games and that’s just testimony to the players and how hard they worked and their coaching staff as well for having them prepared.”
More coverage of the St. Albert bantam AAA team will be in Saturday’s edition of the Gazette.
