Mennonite Ball League season wraps up at Jets Stadium

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By Greg Price
Taber Times
gprice@tabertimes.com

Another year, another success story as the Mennonite Ball League season is in the books.

The playoffs /all-star games that concluded the regular season were held at Jets Stadium in Vauxhall, and served as a fundraiser for the Ronald McDonald House.

The league picks new charities to donate to every year, with the fundraiser now in its fourth year as a way to showcase the flourishing league.

“We are focusing more and more on the young player and we have new players coming into the league. The advantage of having so many teams is we have three different divisions. The ‘C’ division we go as low as age 13,” said Frank Klassen, co-organizer of the all-star/playoff games that end the season.

With a league featuring teams into the high 20s, players range from all over the region including Taber, Brooks, Redcliff, Vauxhall and Coaldale.

“It’s geared towards giving young people an alternative to the party lifestyle you see sometimes in the Mennonite lifestyle on Sundays. We are having so much success. You are seeing so many young people come and join the league,” said Klassen. “That motivates us to keep going and push forward and we are getting a lot of great sponsors. There are people in the community that are realizing this is a good thing.”

During the regular season, the league competes at fields in Enchant and Bow Island apart from practice schedules.

There are five Sundays put on the schedule for games, but overall there is flexibility to when games are played given the work demands of many players.

“We are flexible, so when a team sets up a game during the week, we still put that towards the standings,” said Klassen. “We do it that way because we have so many people working on farms, so we have to make the schedule so people can make the games.”

The final games of the season for the Mennonite Ball League helped raise $4,800 for charity along with a half-ton truck of food raised for the Vauxhall Food Bank.

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