Skip to content

Blaine Kovach and Kevin Culy going to Baseball Canada Cup

Estevan’s Blaine Kovach said it’s an “honour” that Saskatchewan has chosen him to be an assistant coach with team Saskatchewan at the Baseball Canada Cup Aug. 8-12.

Estevan’s Blaine Kovach said it’s an “honour” that Saskatchewan has chosen him to be an assistant coach with team Saskatchewan at the Baseball Canada Cup Aug. 8-12.

Kovach, the head coach of the Southeast Performance Pump Twins in the midget AAA Saskatchewan Premier Baseball League, will go with the province that has won in 2016 and 2017 and made the final in 2015. Kovach will be joined in representation from the Estevan area by local umpire Kevin Culy.

“It definitely is an honour to be asked to be one of the coaches along with the team, “ said Kovach. “There’s a lot of pressure with back to back gold medal champions with team Sask. There’s a lot of pressure on the guys and it’s a really good experience…

“It’s a different standpoint for me having been a player who’s been the Canada Cup and now being a coach at the Canada Cup. I’m pretty excited.”

The Baseball Canada Cup features teams of U17 age baseball players representing all of the provinces. The teams are pooled into the Pool A of Saskatchewan, Quebec, Ontario and British Columbia, and Pool B with the rest of the provinces. The playoffs will then determine the winning province.  

There won’t be any Southeast Twins on the Saskatchewan roster, although one or two were close to making it, Kovach said. He hopes the team will be as grinding, hard-nosed and gritty as the other teams from Saskatchewan that claimed the Cup title.

“They climb back when they’re down and they battle through everything,” said Kovach. “That’s what we look for in the players, and I’m sure that’s what they look for in themselves. They don’t give up no matter what the situation is and don’t let adversity take over… I’m hoping that continues this year as well.”

The players were chosen from the annual midget selection tournament and looked at through the year.

“They’ll gel together as a group really quickly,” he said. “I can tell that already.”

Although this year doesn’t have any Twins on the roster, the team is composed of players that Kovach is familiar with, having coached against them all year long. Having them on his side is a refreshing change.

“It’s an amazing feeling,” he said. “You get to see these kids all season long and you see so and so and they had a great day against you and … now I get to see what he does against other great ballplayers doing.

“I think in a tournament style like this, they’ll do just fine. There will be a lot of guys that just thrive in a tournament style like this.”