Cobras hosting girls clinic

Ashley Stephenson would love to see females have their own baseball league.

The 38-year-old Mississauga native is a former two-sport athlete who played baseball for the Canadian national women’s team and ice hockey in the original National Women’s Hockey League and Canadian Women’s Hockey League. 

Stephenson is now part of a girls baseball committee with Baseball Ontario which are holding camps across the province to introduce girls to the sport.

Stephenson will be in St. Catharines Saturday at George Taylor Field for The Home Grown Baseball – Clinics for Girls event.

“This year, our goal was to have camps for girls and to show them there is an option out there,” Stephenson said. “We don’t have a league yet and that is our goal. We really want to have a league where females can practice with females and play against females and we need local associations to help us.”

Stephenson, who graduated from Brock University with a Bachelor of Education and from Wilfred Laurier University with an Honours Bachelor of Arts in Kinesiology, said the camps are the starting point in introducing girls to baseball.

“Our goal with the camp is to show our young female athletes and their parents there are other girls that play and also show local associations that there are girls who play so they can now create a team or show interest and help us,” she said. “Our goal eventually is to regionalize slowly but surely so they can play against each other.

“It might take a few years to get there but the camps are our first step.”

SCMBA president Matt Zimmerman is thrilled to be able to host a camp.

“We’re just excited to be chosen as a host of one of these clinics. To help grow female baseball is important to St. Catharines minor baseball and hopefully we can continue with this program in the future,” he said. “Ashley is the best, I could sense her passion for the sport the first time we met on a Zoom call to arrange this. Ashley has an amazing career in female baseball and I know she is an inspiration to many of our female players in SCMBA.”

Stephenson feels girls should have the option of playing baseball.

“I grew up and played softball and then switched to baseball and they are two very different sports. It’s like taking your daughter to sign up for tennis and then telling her she has to play badminton. They are two different racquet sports and so our belief is you should just have the choice.”

She would love to see baseball for girls grow along the same lines as hockey for females has.

“I played hockey and when I signed up they didn’t tell me to go play ringette. Maybe years and years ago, but not now. There are over 65,000 girls and women playing hockey in Ontario alone. We’re not thinking are all of a sudden there will be 65,000 girls and women playing baseball, we just want them to have the choice.

“You grow up and watch the Blue Jays and then you go to sign up and they tell you you have to play softball, there is no option for you. In 2021, that seems absurd to me that there is no option just because you are a girl.”

Stephenson works as a physical education teacher at Dr. Frank J. Hayden Secondary School in Burlington, where she sees the benefits of sport daily.

“There as so many physical benefits which is what a lot of people focus on, but for me mental health is high right now. Emotionally just feeling so good about yourself and the confidence you gain from being part of a team and working with others and for young women to learn how to become good leaders,” she said. “There are so many positives about sport. It has helped shape who I am. I wouldn’t be the same person without it and I just think young girls should have those same opportunities, particularly in baseball.”

Cost of the camp is $25. On-field instruction and a T-shirt will be provided.

Players should wear comfortable, activity-appropriate clothing and running shoes. A glove and helmet are useful, but not required for participation.

Link to Registration Form: https://tinyurl.com/us7wadbk

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