The Western Canada 18U AA champion Altona Bisons are Baseball Manitoba’s Grassroots Team of the Year for 2019.

“It just tops off the type of year we had and it’s so rewarding,” said Bisons coach Ken Voth prior to the start of Baseball Manitoba’s Awards Banquet Saturday night in Brandon. “Most of my group was all grade 12’s so this was their last year of minor ball. I feel so good for them that they can go out on top. It’s just a year to remember.”

“There was a lot of effort into it.” Voth said. “I threw a lot of batting practice pitches to these boys. I don’t know if I can count that high. The boys put in the work and I had a real good leadership group on my team. Not just one but there’s a bunch of boys that have leadership abilities. They were just total team ballplayers.”

The Bisons lost 6-4 to Portage in the Provincial final in Morden this past July but jumped at the chance to represented Manitoba at the Western’s in Alberta when a number of Pirates players went to the National 18U AAA championship in London, Ontario with Pembina Hills.

Altona defeated Leduc 4-3 in the gold medal game.

“I know when we lost the provincial final to Portage, it was a let down,” noted coach Voth. “You can’t always win but then we realized we did have a shot at it, all the players got together. Everybody changed work schedules and made it work. We all went to Strathmore and then pulled it off there. It was a real good weekend to end it off.”

 

Clayton Dreger asked Baseball Manitoba president Tony Siemens to reflect on the past ball season

 

photo courtesy Patti Hacault

 

Baseball Manitoba 2019 Award Winners
Challenger Player of the Year: Brady Dzwinchuk (Winnipeg)
Female Player of the Year: Brittney Langlais (Garson)
Youth Umpire of the Year: Avery Smart (Brandon)
Larry Nicholls – Umpire Award of Merit: Kevin Le Lievre (Portage)
Volunteer of the Year: Lori Vassart (La Salle)
13U Player of the Year: Luke Wagner (Bonivital)
15U Player of the Year: Conor Geekie (Strathclair)
18U Player of the Year: Joey Moffatt (Portage)
21U Player of the Year: Tyler Wood (Winnipeg)
Senior AA Player of the Year: Colton Boudreau (Winnipeg)
Grassroots Coach of the Year: Dough Lockhart (Winnipeg)
High Performance Coach of the Year: Ed Kulyk (Winnipeg)
Grassroots Team of the Year: 18U Altona Bisons
High Performance Team of the Year – Minor: 13U AAA Bonivital Blacksox
High Performance Team of the Year – Major: Elmwood Giants Junior
Honor Society Inductees: Ken Sharpe (Minnedosa), Bob Alm (Dauphin) Faron Asham (Brandon)
Region of the Year: Midwest