By Dan Marshall

Baseball ID camp for Grades 8-10 coming to the mid island

May 2, 2017 | 12:27 PM

PARKSVILLE — The first step for young baseball players to one day represent B.C. or even Canada is to attend a BC Baseball Regional ID Session.
 
Over the next several weeks there are evaluation sessions all around the province.
 
For players in grades eight through 10 there’s a North Island ID Camp at Royals Field in Parksville May 9 at 5 p.m.
 
It will be mostly athletes from Nanaimo and Parksville but there is expected to be interest from Duncan, Courtenay and Campbell River as well.
 
There are no geographical restrictions so someone can attend an ID camp anywhere in the province, but to be eligible for any Baseball BC High Performance team a player must me evaluated.
 
Dave Wallace, Director of Baseball Operations with the Parksville Royals of the BCPBL, will be one of the people running the ID session.
 
He said the value of these camps is to get a report card of how players stack up against their peers.
 
“Obviously if you’re a player who’s played on a rep team someone has previously identified you as somebody with better than average abililty,” Wallace said. “If you haven’t been identified, I can give you examples of kids who have been passed up from these camps and they love the game, they persevere, and they go on to play at university. Don’t ever let anybody tell you you’re not good enough.”
 
In 2016 there were about 40 players that made it out to the north island session and Wallace said those numbers fluctuate.
 
All of the registration information is available at www.baseball.bc.ca.
 
The ID sessions are open to anyone but there is a $50 charge to be a part of the event.
 
For players who are going to be identified for the first time it can be a nerve-wracking experience.
 
Wallace pointed out these these types of ID camps are essentially the same as the athletes move on to higher levels.
 
 
dan.marshall@jpbg.ca
 
On twitter: @danmarshall77