Kelowna senior slow pitch league looking for new players

Dust off your old ball mitt and get ready to play some softball this spring. Kelowna’s senior slow pitch league is looking for new members.

Castanet met up with some softball players at Cameron Park's ball diamond to talk about the game ahead of the 2023 spring and summer season.

"We’ve got a competitive division and a recreational division. Women over 45 are welcome, and men over 50,” said second-year member Rod Nystrom. “It’s two mornings a week. It’s Tuesdays and Thursdays at this point, and the fields are immaculate, they’re in great condition."

This season will be Beryl Amaron’s 26th year in the league, and she absolutely loves baseball. But she says the social aspect of the game is the best part.

“There’s a real comaraderie… and every year, we play on a different team as well. So you don’t have the same team year after year after year. So, after four or five years — it takes a while to get to know everybody — but eventually you do get to know everybody and you become part of a really cool, really great group," smiled Amaron.

Nystrom says the slow pitch league helps keep seniors in shape, but that it’s also a great way to work on your mental health.

“I just think getting out of your house, your condo, whatever it is and interacting with other people again, and bringing it all back," Nystrom added.

"Last year was the first year I played in the league and we had an enormous amount of fun just interacting with people for a couple of hours. And then you go home and nurse your muscles or whatever you want to do, but it is, I think, a huge thing with all the mental illness across the country, that you get out socially and interact.”

Sign up is $130 and gets you two weekly softball games until the end of summer.

Registration day is April 18 at Mission Sports Fields at 10 a.m., with the league officially starting up on May 2.