West Island teen baseball team locked out of playoffs due to coaching mix-up

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A talented West Island baseball team is putting away its bats and gloves earlier than expected this year following a mix-up that has nothing to do with the players.

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A missed deadline in June for a mandatory practice — which must be attended by a coach per team every year — forced the West Island Royals, a Midget A team from the Lac-St-Louis region, to miss out. to next week’s regional playoffs. Their regular season ended this week with 16 wins, six losses and two draws.

“To be honest, we were pretty devastated,” said Nathan Van Aelst, a player on the team who considers baseball his passion. “It’s something you look forward to all season. It’s what you strive to win for. That’s the goal at the end of the season — it’s the light at the end of the tunnel. Being removed (because of) a small mistake by our coaches… I don’t think it should have cost us not to have access to the regionals.

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Alain Cloutier, the team’s head coach, attributed the confusion around the deadline to poor communication between the coaches, the team association and the region. He said the deadline was different this year than the last two due to the pandemic, and that he and his assistant coaches were still discussing who would take the course when they found out the deadline had passed.

“We had to tell our 15-16-17-year-olds…we’re not going to be able to play the playoffs,” Cloutier said. “The children are devastated. The coaches (are) heartbroken for our children; we also feel guilty to some extent because some of this is absolutely our responsibility. We didn’t know the deadline…but we knew the requirement and we missed it.

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Cloutier said he tried to offer solutions, including a suspension for himself or payment out of pocket for a practice session, to no avail.

The Lac-St-Louis region of Baseball Quebec called the situation unfortunate, but said they had to enforce the rules.

“I’m sad they can’t play. They are probably one of the best teams in the region, and they would have represented the region well at the provincials if they had won the regionals,” said Theo Michael, secretary of the region’s board of directors. “I have to admit I’m a bit upset as this was a minor, minor effort that could have been taken by the association to ensure their team was compliant.”

According to Baseball Quebec, eight percent of all teams in the province are in the same predicament as the West Island Royals, though it added a select few are opting out of the playoffs. . This translates to 178 teams that will be absent from regionals, compared to 2,098 that can participate. There’s a similar divide in Lac-St-Louis in particular, where seven percent of teams (18) won’t move forward, and 93 percent (233) will.

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“I always find it unfortunate that it is the athletes who miss out when there is a rule that is not respected,” said Maxime Lamarche, General Manager of Baseball Quebec. “I find it very, very sad. But at some point, everyone has to take responsibility and we, at Baseball Quebec, have put in place many mechanisms so that there is as little oversight as possible.

Lamarche said various training communications — which ensure conditions are optimal for athletes to enjoy playing the sport — are sent to regions and associations as soon as the winter break ends. Cloutier, for his part, said that the question of which coaches will participate in training will be settled later, once they know which team they will be with.

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“We just hate it in the end…it doesn’t matter who is most at fault, it’s the (kids) who pay the price for mistakes, misunderstandings or adult problems,” Cloutier said.

Lamarche added that once the finals are over, members can suggest changes to the rules that govern the sport for the following year.

“I just want to send the message that every year we are open to hearing new things, and this year I expect people from the West Island will probably come up with new alternatives or solutions. — not for the rule to change, but for the consequence of potentially being different,” Lamarche said. “Each year we redo the process so that the following year the rules are better for our whole community.”

kthomas@postmedia.com

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