Zoe on the go
Zoe Falardeau is in high demand this summer.
The 15-year-old Welland native is a busy as can be on the baseball diamond — more on that in a moment — while also keeping up her skills on the ice for the Oakville U18 girls hockey team.
“For now, it’s mostly just baseball,” Falardeau said in a rare moment of downtime. “I have hockey practice every Wednesday and summer hockey and I can’t really go because I have baseball. We have our training camp in August and then hockey will start up full time.”
The Franco Niagara student doesn’t even give the hectic pace a second thought anymore.
“I don’t know (how I do it),” he smiled. “I’m just used to it by now.”
Amazingly enough, Falardeau’s summer is about to get even more hectic.
Falardeau, who plays for the Fieldhouse Pirates 14U boys team, has been selected to Team Ontario 16U (Summerside, PEI Aug 25-28) as well as Team Ontario 21U (St. John’s, Nfld August 11-14) girls squads. She was also picked to play for the Ontario Women’s second team (July 21-24 Stonewall, Man.) but had to decline the women’s tournament in order to attend the Ontario Women’s Hockey Association Summer Games.
Falardeau is well aware she is going to have to focus on one sport or the other almost exclusively in the coming years.
“I think for school I’ll go mostly towards hockey because there’s more options for girls but I think I’ll play baseball as much as I can until I have to pick hockey more,” she said. “For now, I can stick with both.”
Asked for her preference, she was a diplomatic.
“That’s a tricky one. It’s more I like one for the winter and one for the summer.”
Falardeau, who pitches and plays second base for Fieldhouse, recently tossed a five-inning perfect game at the All Scout Regional Championship, Indianapolis, Ind. She fanned four and threw 42 pitches in the gem.
She describes herself as a control pitcher who throws a fastball and change-up and is now working on curveball.
“I’ve never really worried about the velocity as much,” she said. “I’ve worried more about placing it. Once the placing came I stated working a bit on the velocity.
“I like both (second and pitching) but I feel like I like the pitching more.”
Falardeau has played with boys teams long enough that she rarely, if ever, hears any derogatory remarks regarding her gender.
“I’m mostly friends with most of the guys I play against. We stay in touch and stuff so I haven’t really had any of that,” she said.
Dad Jay Falardeau said it’s a non-issue.
“It’s become second nature. From our point of view we don’t see it as boys and girls anymore. I was talking to a gentleman in the States over the weekend and he said we just call them ballplayers now.
“It wasn’t a girl threw a perfect game, a ball player threw a perfect game. I thought it was interesting he went at it that way.”
On the ice, Falardeau is a defenceman who plays with a calm, poised demeanour.
“Even at a young age, she never panicked with the puck,” Jay Falardeau said.
It’s the same on the mound where she no doubt picked up pointer or two from dad as well as older brother Kaden, who is heading to the University of British Columbia to play ball this fall.
“She was put on the mound in tough situations and she always seemed to keep her calm. She enjoyed it from a young age and mom and I were always playing with them outside. The catching and the throwing came pretty natural for them,” Jay Falardeau said.
Dear reader. If you liked this story or one of the 4,300 other stories found on our website, please consider hitting the Support Us button on the right-hand side of our home page and making a PayPal contribution to our website. Your support would be much appreciated. If you are a business owner, please consider advertising on our site. Our rates are reasonable and we provide plenty of exposure for your business. Contact bpotrecz@outlook.com for more information.
