By Jeff D'Andrea

WBSC impressed with P.A. venue for upcoming worlds

Jun 21, 2017 | 5:00 PM

When the local organizing committee for the 2018 World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) Junior Men’s World Softball Championships showed off the facilities at Prime Ministers’ Park, they had a lot of people they needed to impress like representatives from Softball Canada and the World Baseball Softball Confederation.

Notably out of that list was Ron Radigonda, WBSC executive director in softball. He’s been in the softball game for 50 years, two of those decades as executive director at the ASA/USA and WBSC levels. He’s overseen and attended events at every level, including three Olympics, seven World Championships, and the Pan American Games. If there’s anybody that knows what needs to be done heading into a big ball tournament, Radigonda has the experience to judge that.

After the Tuesday tour of the facilities in Prime Ministers’ Park and talking to the organizing committee, Radigonda compared the organization to that of the Olympic level.

“We had a great tour with the local organizing committee today,” Radigonda said, who came from Oklahoma City to tour P.A. “They have a great org. chart put together and people really know what needs to be done.

“I’m really impressed with the facilities and the improvements that are being made there,” Radigonda added. “It’s really great we’re going to bring the best 19-and-under men’s players from around the world to a place that really cares about the players, and doing everything they can to give them a great experience. Those fields are going to be phenomenal.”

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In his brief speech during a Tuesday banquet at the Cooke Municipal Golf Course, Radigonda said it was obvious to him the organizational committee had the interest of the players on top of their priority list. Being a former player himself, Radigonda appreciated when tournament organization is focused on the players and the games themselves, as opposed to the glitz and glam.

“I think a lot of people lose track of running a world tournament and they think about a lot of the pieces around the event, the opening ceremonies and the special events,” Radigonda said. “Those are all important and you definitely want to do a good job in those, but the number one focus in running a world championship is to put the events on for the athletes, on the field of play. This group gets it. They understand.”

Members of the organizing committee went to Midland, Mich. to see the 2017 WBSC Junior Men’s World Softball Championship and get some additional advice as to what teams and players look for in venues. It didn’t hurt that Prince Albert’s Nick Basaraba was playing in the tournament there, as well.

“They took the time to go to Midland last year to see the junior men’s world Championships there. They got a real sense and feel, talked to teams, talked to managers,” Radigonda said. “They understand those players are coming here because they want to win a world championship, that really comes through loud and clear with this group.”

One of the Prince Albertans that made that trip was Ian Litzenberger, who is the director of sponsorship for the tournament. 

Litzenberger was one of ‘original six’ people that started organizing for this tournament, back in an office meeting in October 2014.

“We had this crazy idea,” Litzenberger said. “We’ve done nationals, we’ve done westerns, we’ve done all this. Okay, let’s try bringing a worlds here.”

There’s been countless amounts of work since they put in their original bid. The biggest obstacle, obviously, were when they were told by Softball Canada that the diamonds weren’t up to par. That sparked Project Triple Play, a plan to fund the construction of the diamonds.

Now that they’re at a point to bring in members of the World Baseball Softball Confederation to take a look at it, which Litzenberger said is a very significant point in Prince Albert’s journey to finally be hosting the world next year.

“It means the finish line is in sight,” Litzenberger said. “We’re [roughly] 380 days away. To see it all come to fruition, that we’re this close, that we’ll potentially have 14 teams from across the world and that we are going to showcase Prince Albert. I got involved in this project, my son plays softball but the main reason I did it is because I live here. I want us to have a community that’s excited about bringing people here, excited about representing P.A. and excited about being P.A.”

Jeff.dandrea@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @jeff_paNOW