Innisdale Leaves Canadian Frozen Tundra For Pounder Classic

Invaders Will Cover Nearly 1,800 Miles To Play Baseball

  • Thursday, March 26, 2015
  • Larry Fleming

The annual Pounder Classic is becoming the long-distance destination for prep baseball teams seeking tournament experience that could serve as a springboard to seasonal success.

A year ago, the Key West (Fla.) Conchs traveled 1,880 miles round trip to play a few games in Central’s tournament.

This March a team from another country is making an appearance in the three-day tourney. In fact, the Innisdale Secondary School Invaders arrived in Chattanooga on Wednesday and made their headquarters at the downtown Choo Choo Hotel.

Innisdale is located in Barrie, Ontario, approximately 45 minutes north of Toronto.

Coach Jon Stirtan met his players at the Toronto airport at 9 a.m. Wednesday and flew to Atlanta. After the stopover the entourage hopped another plane and arrived in the Scenic City at 4:30 p.m.

The Invaders, whose preseason workouts have consisted of throwing to each other and hitting into a net in their school gymnasium, are scheduled to actually play an outdoor game Thursday night at 7:30 – weather permitting – when they take on the Silverdale Seahawks at Hixson High School.

When the Invaders’ travel party flew out of Toronto, they left zero Celsius cold – that’s about 32 degrees here – behind in the frozen tundra.

“We’ve had quite a winter,” Stirtan said. “The temperature hovered around minus-20 to minus-30 Celsius for two months. That’s about 10-13 degrees (Fahrenheit) here in Chattanooga. “We did some indoor training in our gym, which is pretty nice. We usually get outside the first week of April, if it has been a normal winter, and our season starts the third week of April.”

When the Invaders get back home Sunday, they will have covered about 1,778 miles, but that’s not even close to the longest spring trip they’ve taken.

Stirtan, who has coached at the school for 10 years, the past eight as head coach, loaded up his team and journeyed cross country to Tucson, Ariz., in 2012. That tournament buoyed the team’s confidence and Innisdale “rattled off an amazing season,” finishing seventh in the provincial championships, the equivalent of Tennessee’s state tournament.

“In one of the great moments of playing in Tucson was in our last game we hung in with Flagstaff High School and had the lead in the fifth inning before running out of pitching,” Stirtan said. “The feeling my guys got from playing well against a Southern American team was a huge boost.”

That round trip covered approximately 4,575 miles.

In 2009, Stirtan entered the Invaders in the Midwest Classic in St. Louis, which was a mere 1,596-mile trip from Barrie.

But there’s a madness to Stirtan’s method of giving his teams a taste of Southern prep baseball and mild spring weather.

“Baseball is so much better in the States,” Stirtan said. “The experience of playing teams down here shows these guys what it’s like to play top-notch teams. We went back to Barrie and won our (region) championship and had one of the best seasons in our school’s history.”

Stirtan spaces the spring trips three years apart, assuring each player gets to enjoy one tournament in their high school career.

Stirtan has described each trip as “incredible.”

Innisdale joins the Key West (Fla.) Conchs, who were a part of the 2014 Pounder Classic, as long-distance visitors for the annual tournament. The Conchs’ nearly 2,000-mile trip is probably a tournament travel record, just a smidge longer than the Invaders’ 1,778-mile journey.

A team from Fort Smith, Ark., will pile up about 1,250 for this year’s tourney as well. Fort Smith and Innisdale are scheduled to play each other on Friday at 3 p.m. at Central High.

“When I became the head coach I wanted these trips to give our guys a great experience,” said Stirtan, whose first job out of the University of New Brunswick-Fredricton. “I found the (Pounder Classic) on the internet, shot coach Carter an e-mail and he got right back to me saying he ‘would love to have us.’

“A couple of weeks later the flight was booked. I won’t have my full team of 18 players coming. I’ll have 14 because four of the guys had other commitments. We’ll have 14 players and three coaches.”

Each year Carter sends every state athletic association east of the Mississippi invitations for the classic and has strong response from out-of-town teams to participate in the tournament held annually in the prime spring break time frame.

Innisdale is the first team to “go through customs” for play in the tourney.

“We’re excited to meet and play them,” Carter said. “I think it’s a great opportunity and experience for our kids to broaden their knowledge, other customs and approaches to the game of baseball.

“With (Innisdale), Harmony from Florida and Fort Smith from Arkansas, I think we have the entire eastern U.S. covered.”

The Innisdale players work for years to finance the baseball trips. Many of them help in numerous ways assisting in nearby Georgian College athletic games, serving as scorekeepers or chasing down balls at volleyball matches, and that money goes into the bank year after year.

Stirtan says that money covers about half of the team’s expenses, with the rest coming from players and their parents. The baseball team does not have a functioning booster club as most teams in the States have had for financial support for decades.

“Although, I’m very familiar with booster clubs,” Stirtan said. “Those clubs are huge in hockey back home. The (Toronto) Blue Jays coming to our area has been a major impact on baseball’s popularity. Baseball is growing around Barrie and we actually have more participation than in football, which is a nice thing, but no matter where you are in Canada hockey is No. 1.”

Among the “notable alumni” listed for Innisdale High is Sandy McCarthy, former NHL hockey player with the Calgary Flames. Also on that list is figure skater Elvis Stojko, a seven-time Canadian champion, three-time World champion and two-time Olympic Silver medalist.

During their stay in Chattanooga, the Invaders will be gearing up for a drive toward a possible region championship by competing in the Central tournament and also do their fair share of sightseeing. They will visit Ruby Falls, ride the Incline up Lookout Mountain and “explore” various downtown sites. The coaches are planning to take in the aquarium.

“A couple of guys I teach with have been there and they say it’s a great spot,” Stirtan said. “We’re going to squeeze in as much as possible before we leave.”

Most importantly, though, Stirtan hopes his squad can parlay the tournament competition into another successful season that hopefully ends with a region title and strong showing in the provincial tournament, which consists of 18 regional winners, plus the 2014 champion and a host team.

“We’ve never had a provincial champion,” the coach said. “Our best finish was seventh after the 2009 trip to Tucson. Last year we just missed provincial, losing a squeaker to Barrie’s St. Joseph’s Jaguars in the region championship game. The Jaguars finished fifth at provincial.”

Improving as a baseball team, after all, is the main purpose of the Invaders’ trip to Chattanooga. The sightseeing excursions are just icing on a cake.

2015 Pounder Classic Schedule

Pool A at Central

Central, Fort Smith, Ark., Innisdale, Ontario, Canada, Cleveland, Harmony, Fla., Grissom, Ala.

Pool B at Hixson

Boyd-Buchanan, Sale Creek, Gwinette, Ga., Hixson, Silverdale

Thursday

At Central

Central vs. Fort Smith, 3 p.m.

Cleveland vs. Boyd-Buchanan, 5:15

Harmony vs. Grissom, 7:30

At Hixson

Gwinette vs. Hixson, 3 p.m.

Gwinette vs. Sale Creek, 5:15 p.m.

Innisdale vs. Silverdale, 7:30

Friday

At Central

Fort Smith vs. Innisdale, 3 p.m.

Central vs. Harmony, 5:15 p.m.

Fort Smith vs. Cleveland, 7:30 p.m.

At Hixson

Cleveland vs. Hixson, 3 p.m.

Sale Creek vs. Boyd-Buchanan, 5:15 p.m.

Innisdale vs. Grissom, 7:30 p.m.

At Silverdale

Grissom vs. Silverdale, 4 p.m.

Saturday

At Central

Central vs. Innisdale, 10 a.m.

Cleveland vs. Harmony, 12:15 p.m.

Central vs. Grissom, 2:30 p.m.

Championship game, 7 p.m.

At Hixson

Sale Creek vs. Hixson, 10 a.m.

Boyd-Buchanan vs. Hixson, 12:15 p.m.

Boyd-Buchanan vs. Gwinette, 2:30 p.m.

Saturday at Central

Championship game, 7 p.m.

Gwinette vs. Silverdale, 10 a.m.

Sale Creek vs. Silverdale, 2:30 p.m.

(E-mail Larry Fleming at larryfleming44@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @larryfleming44)

 

 

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