A handful of young Abbotsford athletes are set to battle the country’s best at the Canada Summer Games event in Winnipeg, which kicks off today (Friday).
The Canada Games are a national multi-sport competition with participation from every province and territory in Canada.
Approximately 4,000 athletes, coaches and managers will compete in 16 different sports at the event.
Abbotsford athletes attending the Games as a part of Team BC include: baseball players Brett Bass, Kayden Beauregard, Carter Harbut and Travis McDougall, soccer player Aaron Mulama, softball players Taylor Lundrigan and Callum Pilgrim and wrestlers Jaskaran Gakhal and Karam Shergill.
Bass, Beauregard and McDougall are all important parts of the Abbotsford Cardinals, while Harbut has starred for the Chilliwack Cougars and for several provincial teams in the past.
Baseball competition for the quartet kicks off on Saturday when B.C. opens against Alberta.
Mulama, a Yale Secondary grad, was a member of the Vancouver Whitecaps pre-registry and has committed to join the UBC-Okanagan Heat men’s team for the fall.
Men’s soccer action opens on Aug. 7, when BC battles Saskatchewan.
Lundrigan and Pilgrim most recently competed for the Team Canada women’s elite softball team at Canada Cup International Softball Championship earlier this month. Pilgrim, a W.J. Mouat grad, has spent the past two years with the Lindsey Wilson College Blue Raiders in Kentucky. Lundrigan played last season with the SFU Clan’s softball team.
Softball action begins on Saturday when BC plays Alberta.
Gakhal and Shergill, both W.J. Mouat students, earned gold and silver medals respectively in their divisions at the B.C. high school wrestling championships in March.
Wrestlers hit the mat beginning on Aug. 9.
Locals attending the Games as coaches or managers include: James Bodaly (baseball), Shawn Coupland (basketball), Michelle Peters (softball) and Ashley Verhaeghe (wrestling).
The Games run until Aug. 13 in the Manitoba capital, Gimli and Kenora. For more information on the event, visit canadagames.ca.