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Voyageurs stay focused, flexible while preparing for baseball season

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Adaptability is not just a virtue, but a necessity for sports organizations in the era of COVID-19.

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Jean-Gilles Larocque, owner and operator of the Baseball Academy and coach for the Sudbury Voyageurs’ entries in the Premier Baseball League of Ontario, had just put the finishing touches on a revamped regimen to comply with the province’s red-control standards, when word came down last week that Sudbury was headed into the grey-lockdown zone of the provincial framework.

Larocque, his fellow coaches and players immediately vacated their training facility at 1010 Lorne St., which had just re-opened in mid-February, and returned to Zoom sessions, and preparation for the Voyageurs’ 14U, 16U and 18U season openers in May continued unabated.

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Such is the state of high-level sport one year into a global pandemic, where Larocque and his colleagues must make changes to training methods almost as quickly as they make adjustments on the field — while constantly considering the mental and physical strain on their athletes.

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“Our pitchers were ready to throw around mid-January,” recalled Larocque, who opened his current location for baseball training in November 2019, then added a new section for basketball, volleyball, badminton and Ninja Warrior last November.

“We got shut down December, January to mid-February, then I had to re-vamp up their arms to be ready for May 1, so they’re on, off, on, off and the season start date doesn’t change. You’re just lining yourself up for injuries, so I was happy to keep them throwing so they’re ready. Obviously, things can change, but I’m keeping it in my head that it’s May 1 and that’s when we need to be ready.”

All three Sudbury teams are to compete in the PBLO, against a slew of squads ranging from the southwest to the eastern part of the province.

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The Voyageurs previously played in the Elite Baseball League of Ontario, whose teams are mostly clustered around the GTA.

With Brodie Jeffery moving on from the coaching ranks of both the Sudbury Voyageurs and the Laurentian University varsity team to advance his policing career in southern Ontario, Larocque will serve on the staffs of both the 18U team, alongside Dennis Melanson, Greg Johnson and Curtis Johnson, and the 14U outfit, with Matt Butler, Mark Messier and Ryan Faubert.

Coaching the 16U squad will be Shawn Paquette, Joey Moher and Faubert.

They’ll try to build on a string of promising performances last September, when the Voyageurs welcomed teams from Ottawa and Oshawa to Terry Fox Sports Complex for a series of games.

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“I’m excited,” Larocque said recently. “The 14Us, I’m excited to see what the future looks like, because with the bulk of the kids will stick around for a second year, so we’ll kind of get a feel this year, in my opinion, then you’re looking to compete a little bit more — not saying we wouldn’t compete this year. I think we fared last year against Ottawa when we played them last fall, and they are in our division, so I was happy with that. We were throwing in different people and mixing things up, but so were they, so we’ll see how it plays out.

“For the 16s, they’re looking good. It was a little bit of a rough start for them, but we’re getting kids from everywhere and they’re being coached by so-and-so and so-and-so and I’m not saying they have been badly coached at all, but they have had different coaches and now they have had the same person at the helm since September with some direction.

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“With the 18s, we fared well in the fall, so I’m pretty excited about what they can bring to the table in the spring and summer.”

With the pandemic ongoing, but the weather warming and the outdoor sports season looming at last, Larocque is more eager than ever to give his players a chance to ditch their laptops and tablets, at least for a little while, and to hit the field for meaningful, head-to-head competition.

“It’s all of us,” he said with a laugh. “The way I’m looking at it is I’m happy to be proactive instead of reactive. Say May gets pushed back, at least we’re ready. Right now, the kids are like OK, we have seven weeks left, we have 31 practices left, whatever the case may be. If it’s pushed back and it’s 35 weeks, fine, but at least we have something to shoot for

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“The kids are super excited to have something to look forward to, the coaches are chomping at the bit. I have watched what has happened with hockey and what a roller-coaster ride that has been, but I think we were pretty fortunate last summer to train and, in August through to October, to be able to play in bubbles. Worst-case scenario, that could happen again, but our league has talked with Baseball Ontario and we could see umpires going behind home plate again, leading off is going to happen again, and baseball is going to follow the provincial rules, rather than Baseball Ontario having its own rules. I get it, last year they were trying to be really proactive and careful, but this year, people are saying hey, if it’s good enough for the government, why can’t it be good enough for us?”

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Making up the Voyageurs’ 18U roster are Caleb Cain-Plante, Clint Corbett, Brandon Cormier, Braeden Dube, Carter Gallivan, Cole Goudreau, Carson Harvey, Yanick Loiselle, Alexander McNiven, Ryan Michaud, Josh Blake, Matthew Obradovich, Braedan Pakkala, Scott Rienguette, Malcolm Roberge-McGugan, Gavin Roy, Anthony Signorile, Josh McNeil and Liam Socranski.

For the 16Us, players on the roster include William Arsenault, Martin Audette, Cameron Bauer, Karsen Chartier, Alex Frawley, Cody Jalbert, Ryan Lacasse, Justin Lancup, Noah Leveille, Liam McNiven, Cole McPhee, Ethan Morris, Nicholas Signorile and Vaughn Thomson.

Sudbury’s 14U competitors include Matthew Arnold, Felix Aubin, Colton Audette, Callum Baron, Nicolas Dalcourt, Justin Dandeneau, AJ Dubeau, Hudson Fletcher, Mathieu Lacasse, Gabriel Larocque, Devan Madore, Ethan Oliver, Braiden Paul, Owen Perron, Noah Portelance and Ryan Spencer.

bleeson@postmedia.com

Twitter: @ben_leeson

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