Junior Bulls ready to host Junior Little League Canadian Championship

By Lethbridge Herald on July 29, 2022.

Herald photo by JUSTIN SEWARD Lethbridge Jr. Bulls Dylan Wojtowicz takes one last batting practice session at Spitz Stadium on Friday ahead of the start of the Junior Little League National Championship today.

By Justin Seward

Lethbridge Herald

The Lethbridge Bulls junior Little League team have been prepping for some time now to begin their quest for the Junior Little League Canadian Championship title as hosts beginning today at Spitz Stadium.

“We’ve been putting in a lot of work,” said Zachary Goruk, Junior Bulls head coach.

“We’ve had a really long summer. Over the last two months or so, we’ve been really gearing up. We understand the opportunity that’s in front of us and not often do you get a chance to play on the national stage. And so for the past two months we’ve been going anywhere from five to seven days a week (and) recently it’s been six to seven days a week between practices and games.”

Goruk has had to opportunity to play for Team Canada twice and has a little bit of insight on what it takes to be successful at national championships.

“So I’ve kind of relayed to the boys a little bit that everyone’s hungry, everyone wants to come out and win that championship,” he said.

“And it doesn’t take an average amount of work, it takes an extra ordinary amount of work. And when everybody wants it that bad, you’ve got to want it more. So we just relayed the message if this is your dream and something you truly want to do and they know what kind of opportunity it is you need to put in the work.”

Practices have been game-like situations with putting pressure on the 13 to 15-year-old kids in certain drills where there might be punishment if an error was committed.

“I think we’ve done a really good job and ultimately it just comes down trusting the work we’ve put in and harnessing the moment and executing on the big stage,” said Goruk.

The team got a pass on any qualifying game because of being hosts of junior nationals but had to play 16 little league games to qualify.

“We’re a strong ball club,” Noah Gruninger said.

“You can see  if you ever come to one of our games that we work hard, we are always hustling, we are always there, we back each other up.”

He feels like it’s going to be a good experience being hosts.

“Because we’re hosting in front of a home crowd and it’s going to be warm weather and we’re just going to have a good time against Team Quebec and Team Ontario and stuff,” he said.

Goruk said it’s a very big deal to be hosts.

“Especially considering what obviously everything we’ve gone through for the past two years with the pandemic and such,” he said.

“Just having the opportunity to host a national event and have teams come from around Canada and hopefully doing everything we can to be successful in the tournament and hold the national banner at the end, it means a lot to us, it means a lot to kids and it means a lot to the city.”

All the Bulls games will be at 7 p.m. and will open up against Quebec today, Sunday versus Alberta, Aug. 2 against Ontario, battle the Atlantic team on Aug. 3 and wrap up the round robin against Team B.C. on Aug. 4.

The tournament runs from July 30- Aug. 7 with the championship game at 2 p.m. on the last day and all games are at Spitz Stadium.

The winner will earn a berth in the Little World Series in Taylor, Mich. from Aug. 14-21.

Results and  a livestream can be found at cjrllcanadians.wordpress.com.