Longtime Estevan Minor Baseball (EMB) supporter Kent Phillips was honoured last month by Baseball Saskatchewan for his work over the past 18 years at making sure all young ballplayers in the Energy City have a chance to enjoy some time on the field.
Phillips was presented with the Joe McDonald Award for Merit by Baseball Saskatchewan for his years of volunteering and dedication to minor baseball during an Oct. 23 ceremony at the DoubleTree by Hilton in Regina. He was also honoured that day, along with business partner Cort Barker, with the Baseball Saskatchewan Patron Sponsor of the Year award that was presented to their company Performance Pump Services Limited for its support of the game.
“It’s exciting either way,” said Phillips. “We’ve always tried to do as much as we can volunteer-wise or sponsorship-wise with the company and because I’ve been a baseball guy for a long time it’s one of the sports that I like to help out where I can on the business side of things.”
Since it opened its doors five-and-a-half years ago, Performance Pump Services Limited has continually been a major supporter of minor ball buying jerseys, sponsoring teams, including the Southeast midget AAA Twins this past season, and even paying their employees to head down to the field to lay sod and cut grass when volunteers could not be found. That last commitment came to the forefront this past season when the house league lost their field maintenance employee shortly before the year began and Phillips and Barker paid their workers to help out lining diamonds, cutting grass and dragging the infield before house league games.
“We will still do as much as we can,” he said. “We’ve got a commitment to the Twins organization to continue sponsoring the AAA ball team, so we’re going to continue doing that for sure. I’m sure we’ll continue hosting provincial events and we’ll continue donating to that…as well.”
Phillips began volunteering with the EMB’s Senior Mites team nearly two decades ago as a coach for his sons Brendan and Jarrett and their teammates. He moved up the ranks as his kids did and after they graduated he dropped back down to the mosquito division to start over with his third son Kyler’s team.
“By the time they started to the time they finished along how many years it took it was really enjoyable,” said Phillips. “I was going to be at the ballpark anyways watching the kids, so why not be involved. I got a chance to get to meet a lot of nice young men who turned into not only very good ballplayers, but very nice men as well and lots of them I still call friends actually and not just former players.”
The veteran coach also wore a couple more hats with EMB over the years serving as its vice president for seven years and its president for another seven. The Baseball Saskatchewan award for volunteering and dedication to minor baseball comes a few months after Phillips resigned his post as president, but he noted the assistant coaching job with the midget AAA Twins is still his and the plan is to continue cutting the grass at the ballpark and making sure it stays in shape for the kids who use it.
