CONGRATULATIONS TO LEON BOYD and THE DUTCH NATIONAL TEAM!
The Dutch National Team recently won the World Championships in Baseball held in Panama.
The went 15-1, beating Cuba twice for the Gold Medal!!
More photos like the one to the right can be found on Leon Boyd’s facebook page.
Leon is one of our elite coaches at the PowerZone Academy. Inquire about classes with Leon here.
Abbotsford Resident Honoured by Induction to Softball BC Hall of Fame
Owner / Head Instructor
On October 13th, 2007, Dave Paetkau was inducted into Softball BC’s Hall of Fame during their Annual Awards Ceremony. Mr. Paetkau was part of the Canadian Men’s National Softball team from 1991-99. During that time, Canada won the Pan American Games Gold medal in 1991 and 1995 and the World Championship Gold Medal in 1992 and Silver Medal in 1996. During his 20-year softball career, he was a member of the Canadian Championship gold medal team in 1987 and had three-second place and three-third place finishes. Mr. Paetkau has won batting titles at the Canadian Nationals and ISC World Championships and has been named to numerous all-star teams.
I remember the first time I saw Dave Paetkau hit.
It was at the 2003 Icebreaker – the T-Birds, with Billy Johnston pitching, were on a roll and coasting to a win over the New West Brewers. Just when I thought nobody was going to hit Billy on the day – their shortstop hit a rocket right past Billy’s ear. The next time up he drew a walk.
“Who’s that guy playing short?” I asked Billy near the end of the game. “Dave Paetkau” said Billy, “good hitter” he added, as if it needed any clarification.
After the tourney was over, I found myself in the clubhouse amongst a group of guys listening to Dave expose his theories about hitting.
As a guy who rarely gets at an at-bat, I was pretty impressed but when I heard a couple of Grey Sox players say that they had never learned so much about hitting in such a short time, I realized how advanced and how knowledgeable this guy really is.
Dave Paetkau was a member of Canada’s National team for 8 years. He made the All-Canadian team twice and won the Canadian National Batting Title. Continue reading