Kaizen is a Japanese term for continuous improvement, it's also a motto of sorts for the Kaizen U-14 girls baseball team.

The girls take their game quite seriously...seriously enough to brave the plunging temperatures and snow, to go door-to-door running a bottle drive and selling raffle tickets throughout Okotoks.

The girls have a 9 month season; 5 months of all of that is spent training indoors at facilities like the Fieldhouse in Aldersyde. Those gym rentals on top of training costs such as pitching coaches/camps, tournament and travel fees etc. can be quite a heavy haul on the parents and athletes. The girls are hoping to raise enough to get them on the right track to their goal of winning the Western Finals, which would then take them to Nationals.

Kaizen players compete in 'A' League baseball and proud parent of a Kaizen athlete Ken Smith says the girls have unlimited opportunities if they keep up their hard work.

"They're building for Western Finals and they're building for nationals as well as how ever far the Kaizen program can take them." Smith adds "The Olympics are coming up in 2020 and these girls are of age, so that they can maybe be there at that time.  They also have a large amount of opportunities for scholarships if they want them."

Travelling will take up a huge part of the girls summer as well, as player Ava Wurzer says they usually don't play at home very often.

"Usually we're out of town, so we don't play in Okotoks or Calgary very often. We usually play in tournaments in Red Deer, Lloydminster, just kind of all around Canada and the states.  This year we're going to Kelowna and Great Falls so far."

Any funds raised will go directly back into the team, providing things like pitching camps and coaches for the team's 6 pitchers, hotel costs, tournament entry fees and indoor gym rentals for training throughout the winter.  

Players Ava Wurzer, and Mackenzie Lee say it's not all about winning though.

"It's super fun, last year we just had so many good memories in our hotels and it was really fun." Lee says "It's about improving and becoming better every practice and every day."

The girl's first actual tournament of the season will be April 14th for the Ice Breaker Tournament in Kelowna, they'll continue practicing at the Fieldhouse in Aldersyde until then.


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