By Jodie Cooper
The history of baseball in Kamloops can be traced back to the early 1900s, when the unaffiliated Kamloops squad first comes on record in 1911. By the time 1911 rolled around, the city of Kamloops had grown from a small fur trading post to a city with over 3,000 people, and as Kamloops diversified, amateur baseball became a large part of the city’s culture. In 2022, the sport of baseball has returned to the city with a vengeance after years without a team in any local league, determined to make up for the failure of its predecessors.
When the NorthPaws first joined the West Coast League in 2020 under the ownership of Norm Daley, Neal Perry, and Jon Pankuch, they were met with much excitement in the community. There was a huge untapped market for baseball in Kamloops, especially after being forced to wait so long for their team to play. The Kamloops NorthPaws first joined the West Coast League in 2020, where they were faced with the disappointment of their first season being postponed due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. With no choice but to wait, the team and the city collectively held their breath in anticipation of the team’s inauguration into the league.
Finally, the team would play its first game on June 1st, 2021, and would walk away with an 8-7 win over the Edmonton Riverhawks. Kamloops native Tyrelle Chadwick would throw the first ever pitch in NorthPaws history. He would also go on to score the team’s first ever run in the bottom of the second inning.
General manager Jenna Forter says that owners Norm Daley and Neal Perry are doing something unique and different to push the team toward continued success. To them, baseball isn’t just about the sport. It’s about the community and the team’s involvement in it. Both Daley and Perry own their own businesses and developing connections with local businesses is extremely important to them. They make sure to keep their expectations realistic. The goal is long-term, rather than immediate, success.
That’s not to say that the NorthPaws have been unsuccessful so far. In fact, quite the contrary, having finished third in the North Division at the end of last season. However, Forter believes that the team’s biggest accomplishments have happened off the field.
“I think, you know, the biggest accomplishment we’ve had is really getting these young men involved in our community,” she says. “Every billet family I talk to, a lot of other visiting teams, different groups of people have said that the boys have been the most respectful young men who they’ve had the pleasure of interacting with. And I think on my personal standpoint, especially with everything going on in the world… providing such a great opportunity for young men to… flourish and be good role models for younger boys and younger girls going into sports, I think that’s one of our greatest accomplishments. Talking about legacy, to me that’s what stands out.”
Ms. Forter’s hopes are that, in the future, the team will continue to maintain and strengthen its relationships with the community at large. She hopes to develop their relationship with other local baseball teams, including TRU’s baseball team, and the Kamloops Minor Baseball Association, in order to create a sort of “farm” system, similar to farm teams in hockey, in order to sign young players coming up from those teams. And of course, she’ll be in the middle of it all, continuing to put her own personal touch on the team’s community initiatives.
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