As the Williams Lake Slo-Pitch League prepares to wind down with its year-end tournament this weekend, league president Linda Barbondy can’t help but take a step back to admire how far the league has come over the years.
Barbondy got involved with what’s now the WLSPL 24 years ago in 1994 when she formed perennial championship contender, the Ranch Pub Rowdies.
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“The league started up at Esler [Sports Complex] that same year,” Barbondy said. “We helped put up a backstop on field one, but the fields were just gravel. No backstops, no dugouts, no nothing.”
The following year Barbondy joined the league’s executive managing prizes and fundraising.
“The league was poorly organized so I decided to help,” she said. “The first meeting we ever had the president showed up an hour late, so I thought enough of that.”
The slo-pitch fields at the Esler Sports Complex were originally managed by Dave Means. The WLSPL, which was called the Williams Lake Funball League at the time, took over the fields in 1996 in order to have more control over maintenance and upgrades.
“I was able to get plywood donated from Weldwood where I worked and the Rowdies built four dugouts,” she said. “A couple years later we had enough funds to put up fences and a wooden bleacher. My dad built us a couple outhouses and a storage shed, and a few years later we saved up $8,000 to get rid of our gravel infields and put in better material crushed brick, which was a huge improvement.”
Barbondy said in 2004 she was approached by then city councillor Paul French, who was also a player in the funball league. French wanted the two separate leagues using the fields to join to become a society in order to be approved for funding, along with forming the Esler Recreation Advisory Committee (ERAC), to include slo-pitch, soccer, minor fastball, the Cariboo Regional District and the Esler community.
“The next season we took the fence down between the two leagues and started the Williams Lake Slo-Pitch League,” Barbondy said. “We were able to get some grants and in-kind work to get power into the fields. Jeff Knox was a big part of making that happen.”
French said he was in full support of the league, and managed to find funding for it through gaming grants. He credited Barbondy for making the league a success.
“I don’t think the league would exist without her,” French told the Tribune.
“She devotes a lot of time. They do all the work and raise money and they’ve basically been self sufficient since we gave them the seed money.”
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By 2012, the league was able to acquire enough funds to install an irrigation system to the outfields, along with the help of the CRD’s manager of community services Darron Campbell.
“We now have a maintenance budget and also get a $5,000 capital project grant once a year. With this in the past four years we’ve replaced all eight dugouts, four sets of aluminum bleachers, and two backstops.”
Barbondy said the league’s project manager and vice president Lee Stokes has been amazing, and does a fantastic job of all its upgrade projects. This year, the league began selling sponsorship signage for the outfield fencing and on the sides of its dugouts.
Barbondy, meanwhile, devotes countless hours to making the league a success. She juggles her time with the field between her family and work and, while extremely busy, manages to make it all work.
She began her ball career while growing up in Maple Ridge at the age of seven. When her parents moved to Williams Lake, she joined the Williams Lake Minor Fastball Association.
Now the coach and a pitcher for the Rowdies, Barbondy said the team has done so much in the past 24 years.
“Next year the fields and the Rowdies will be 25 years old,” she said. “And wow that is crazy. We’ve been hosting the annual Rowdies Slo-Pitch Tournament for 24 years, so we will have to do something special next season.”
Through slo-pitch, and with her friends on the Rowdies, Barbondy said the team has been able to travel to compete at some amazing destinations.
“We first went to the Dominican Republic in 2001, then again in 2003 and 2005,” she said. “We’ve travelled to Cuba, Mexico, Jamaica and then back to the Dominican.”
The team has also competed in many B.C. cities and town including Revelstoke, Vernon, Kamloops, Clearwater, Quesnel, Blue River, Penticton, 100 Mile and Canim Lake, along with hosting many, many tournaments over the years at the Esler Sports Complex.
Looking back on how much the league has accomplished, Barbondy said it’s satisfying.
“I’m a super organized person,” she said.
“The amount of people that play. It’s just amazing to have that size of a league in this small of a town.”
The league has continued to grow over the years, and now plays host to 30 co-ed teams, and more than 700 players.
“I love doing what I do for the league and I’m looking forward to bigger and better improvements in the next few years,” she said.
YEAR END TOURNAMENT THIS WEEKEND
Eighteen teams will square off this weekend at the Esler Sports Complex slo-pitch fields to determine Williams Lake Slo-Pitch League supremacy.
Teams have been seeded into two divisions — nine in each — to start the tournament, ranked one through nine, based on regular season records.
The Williams Lake Rowdies hold the top seed in Division 1 after finishing the regular season with 16 wins and no losses.
They’re followed by the Rotten Eggs, Rookies, Wild Chickens, Highlife, Sticks & Stones, Hellraisers, Puff Puff Smash and Esket-em to round out the division.
In Division 2 are the Fireballs in first, followed by Broke Millionaires, Alcoballics, Donation Squad, Y-nots, Eh Team, Angels, Left overs and Relations.
Games begin Friday evening at 7 p.m.
Saturday, the action gets underway at 8 a.m. with games stretching throughout the day. Knockout playoff games begin at 5 p.m. Saturday.
Sunday, playoffs begin, with finals slated for the afternoon.
“We’ve had a great season,” said WLSPL president Linda Barbondy.
“Maybe down a few teams than normal for the tournament due to the fire situation in the province which has caused some teams to lose players for work.”
sports@wltribune.com
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