Players, coaches, volunteers, umpires and teams were recognized at the 2018 Baseball Manitoba Awards Banquet this past Saturday in Winnipeg.

 

Dean Sproule & Baseball Manitoba's Nicole Madsen

 

Niverville's Dean Sproule received the Grassroots Coach of the Year Award and his U14 provincial girls ball team, which brought home silver medals from the Canadian Western Championship in Spruce Grove this past summer, was selected the Grassroots Team of the Year.

"Pretty excited," remarked Sproule on being named Coach of the Year. "I don't want to say surprised but I was definitely surprised and taken aback. It was a great year with our girls and to be recognized as Team of the Year, knowing how much the girls mean to me and all that they put into it this year, and our coaching staff and the whole program - felt amazing to come away with being recognized as Grassroots Team of the Year. I'm pretty happy with that."

Manitoba's 14U girls roster included Mercedees Gorham of Steinbach, Kennedy Toews of Blumenort, Chloe Gauthier of Ste. Anne, Kennedy Sproule of Niverville and Avery Pickering of St. Adolphe.

 

Baseball Manitoba's David Whitehead & Murray Lawrence

 

Murray Lawrence of Steinbach was the recipient of the Larry Nicholls Umpire Award of Merit.

"I'm kind of surprised I'm here," said Lawrence. "I just go to work and do what I do. I'm a good teacher and I synthesis material enough so when I talk to kids they help out and when I talk to other umpires when I'm supervising provincial tournaments...I guess I say it in a way that they like to hear it yet at the same time get the message. Umpirewise I've been to a few Nationals so I kind of have an idea what it should be. I'm surprised I'm here."

Lawrence has worked countless Provincial Championships in the Carillon region and National Championships at all levels from coast to coast. He has also supervised many Western Canada Baseball Championships.

 

Corey Koskie & Nik Kauenhofen

 

Nik Kauenhofen, the ace of the Carillon Sultans pitching staff this past Manitoba Junior Baseball League season was named the 21U Player of the Year.

"It was an honour to be recognized for the hard work I've put in," said Kauenhofen who played his last junior game this summer. "Just a lot of excitement and just happy to end it this way."

Kauenhofen was chosen the MJBL's MVP in 2018.

He batted .368 with two home runs, nine stolen bases and drove in 11 runs and on the mound he went 5-2 with a 2.32 ERA.

 

Corey Koskie, Alex Grenier & Baseball Manitoba president Tony Siemens

 

The final award of the evening was Baseball Manitoba's Region of the Year.

The winner was Carillon for the third time in five years.

"A lot of it goes to our volunteers," said Alex Grenier, who is the co-president of Carillon Minor Baseball along with Louis Cote. "A lot of it goes to the things that we host and a lot of it goes to our forward thinking about what is better for the kids, what's better for our region and what's better for Baseball Manitoba. It's not about winning as much as about getting kids to play and that's what we think. Louis and I truely believe that's the way to go is to get kids to play and get kids to keep playing. We conveyed that to our minor associations and they're on board with it. If we have a team of associations like that, that are working together, we're not going to fail. We're going to succeed. What we want is for kids to play ball."

Grenier and Cote were both elected to Baseball Manitoba Management Committee for the 2019 season. Cote is the Vice President of Coaching and Grenier is the Vice President of Competition.

 

2018 Baseball Manitoba Award Recipients
Challenger Player of the Year: Alysaa White (Winnipeg)
Youth Umpire of the Year: Ethan Holland (Winnipeg)
Larry Nicholls - Umpire Award of Merit: Murray Lawrence (Steinbach)
13U (Pee Wee) Player of the Year: Hugh Montgomery (Bonivital)
15U (Bantam) Player of the Year: Juni Song (Winnipeg South)
18U (Midget) Player of the Year: Shayne Campbell (Bonivital)
21U (Junior) Player of the Year: Nik Kauenofen (Carillon)
Female Player of the Year: Brittney Langlais (Garson)
Senior AA Player of the Year: Chris Moffatt (Morden)
Volunteers of the Year: Roger & Gail Langlais (Garson)
Grassroots Coach of the Year: Dean Sproule (Niverville)
High Performance Coach of the Year: Dave Martine (Brandon)
Grassroots Team of the Year: 14U Girls Team Manitoba
High Performance Team of the Year Minor: 13U AAA Brandon Marlins
High Performance Team of the Year Major: Morden Mohawks
Honour Society Inductees: Gerald Palidwor (Dugald), Gerald Ouellette (Winnipeg) & Ron Shewchuk (Minnedosa)
Baseball Manitoba Region of the Year: Carillon

 

photos courtesy Patti Hacault