Richmond Girls Softball Association’s 2000B Islanders and 1999B Islanders rep teams co-hosted the Second Annual U18 Cat Wheatley Memorial Tournament last weekend at London Park.
The event was created in memory of Catherine Wheatley — a longtime RGSA player and coach — who passed away in April of last year from injuries sustained in a car accident. She was just 22.
The 2000B Islanders were determined to make the tournament a special one.
“Cat was not only an amazing softball player but when she finished playing ball she joined our team as an assistant coach and provided countless hours with pitching advice and mentoring our young girls,” recalled Islanders head coach Troy Cooke. “She was also known to love the colour pink.”
The team wore pink socks, belts and arm bands in in her memory. Wheatley’s sister Emily also served as an honorary coach — helping the girls with warm-up and cheering from the bench.
“This was very inspirational and truly lifted the spirits of the girls,” continued Harris. “We ran a 50/50 draw to raise money for the Cat Wheatley scholarship fund during the tournament and the support was incredible. It was a very special weekend.”
The team wanted to represent well for Cat and did just that.
The Islanders overcame a very difficult draw to reach the championship game in the 11-team event before falling to a very strong Kelowna Heat side.
They did it with stellar pitching, strong back catching, key defensive infield plays, spectacular outfield catches and explosive hitting, including a couple home runs over the fence.
“Emily handed out the medals during the closing ceremony and it started to hit us that the tournament was over but the memory of Cat will always continue,” added Cooke.
“The girls accomplished a very big task, being one of the host teams, representing the Wheatley family so strongly and coming up big when it counted.”
The Islanders roster includes: Ayden Foort, Capri Horstmann, Ellen Yam, Emily Wooder, Harper Gibson, Jessica Porter, Josie Cooke, Morgan Glover, Riley Yodogawa, Shannelle Gutenberg and Sheetal Reddy, along with call-ups from the 2002B team — Tayler Chislett-Lefor and Jamie Corbett.
Rounding out the coaching staff are Scott Porter and Tat Ikeda.
