Grant-A-Week WINNER
Port Poquitlam Bantam
Ravens Girls Fastball

Team Port Coquitlam is located approx 25 km east of Vancouver and is best known as the hometown of Canadian hero Terry Fox . Port Coquitlam has up to 900 female athletes registered to play softball/fastball including approx 100 in the Bantam Division.

In the fall of 1999, tryouts were held for players born in 1984 and 1985 to play on the Bantam Rep team and 14 young athletes who displayed superior softball and athletic skills were offered an opportunity to wear the Ravens uniform and each player readily accepted the opportunity to wear the black, white and red uniform.

Although league games for the 2000 season will not start until April, these players should not only be commended for their desire to attend tryouts many months prior to the season start, but also for committing a significant amount of time and effort, in the face of very hectic individual schedules, for a variety of fundraising activities to support their objective to attend an out of town tournament in the summer of 2000.

If a young athlete was only participating in one sport, combined with the considerable demands of attending high school, they would be extremely busy, however when you combine those activities with participation by all players in other sports such as volleyball, ringette, basketball or soccer also at the rep level and add in having a part time job along with becoming a young driver you begin to get a picture not only of how busy these athletes are, but the individual motivation level that each player has.

Twice weekly practices for the 2000 season started in January and consist of a weekly gym practice and a session in our association's batting facility. This schedule will be maintained until the warmer spring weather arrives and enables the team to start outdoor practicing.

The season will consist of approximately 20 league games, plus participation in 4 or 5 tournaments. The team will also be participating in playdown tournaments to try and earn a spot to the 2000 Summer BC Games which will be held in Victoria and the Bantam Girls Provincials which will be held in Burnaby.

The opportunity to participate in the summer games is a one chance opportunity and the team would be ecstatic if a spot was earned to attend, however attending the provincials is also an honour and attending either event is a significant challenge which these athletes are hoping to succeed at and very willing to give up some of their summer holidays to do so. In total the Bantam Ravens will likely play upwards of 55 games this season which will conclude in early August.

Players on this years team are: Teresa Agar, Laura Allan, Caitie Beattie, Corie Finnamore, Jenny Gerwing, Jackie Johnson, Meghan Kilner, Leslie Mah, Kelsey MacInnis, Melissa Ramsay, Shari Rockliff, Laura Ryan, Miranda Wacowicz and Michelle Withenshaw. Coaches are:Dennis Beattie, Garth Ramsay and Mark Withenshaw.

The POCO Bantam Ravens would like to thank NIKE and CAAWS for their support. We are proud to have their support and affiliation for the 2000 Ball season and will do our best to make them proud not only of our on the playing field efforts but also of the manner and sportmanship demeanor which we display for the season.

Canadian Association for the Advancement of Women and Sport and Physical Activity contact us