Three Terrace teams won gold at the André Jean Memorial Tournament in Terrace, B.C. from May 23-25.
The regional tournament had four divisions — U11, U13, U15 and U17. A Terrace team won gold in all except for the U15 division, finishing second with a silver medal. The gold medal winning Terrace teams were all sponsored by Rounded Edge Contracting, and the U15 team that won silver was sponsored by NYX Welding.
"The weather was not the best this weekend, but they played through it. Everyone made the best out of it," shared Kyle Howard, president of the Terrace Minor Softball Association.
In the U11 division, the Terrace team sponsored by Finning CAT also took home bronze. Terrace teams swept the podium in the U13 division with Terrace Chrysler winning silver and Terrace Fusion Eye Care winning bronze. Terrace Kal Tire also won bronze in the U15 division.
The family of André Jean, long-time referee and umpire whom the tournament is named after, was there in attendance. Jean, also known as "Frenchie," passed away in October 2022.
"A special thank you to the family of André Jean for joining us, taking part in the opening ceremonies, and presenting gold medals to some of the winning teams," wrote Joane Legros on Facebook, who handles registrations and media. "Your presence made this event even more meaningful, and we are honoured to carry on André’s legacy through this tournament."
Among the communities represented in the tournament included Smithers, Houston, Kitimat and Prince George.
"The turn out has been really high this year. It's so good to see more kids coming out to play softball."
This year, the association put on more clinics for training kids than they have in previous years.
"We've done umpire clinics, we've pitching clinics, hitting clinics."
The association held raffles at the tournament as well.
"We decided this year with our association to purchase two new ball bats, and we raffled those off this weekend. As well as, we got a good donation from Terrace Chrysler for an autographed Alex Ovechkin journey. We raffled that off as well."
The money that was raised is going toward new training equipment, tournament fees and training clinics.
