Verge: Baseball Manitoba launches new 12U girls division
Baseball Manitoba will launch a 12U girls division this summer. Photo: Baseball Manitoba
February 14, 2025
By Melissa Verge
Canadian Baseball Network
An all-girls baseball division coming to Manitoba this summer will provide young athletes in the province a new opportunity.
In the past three years, the number of girls playing baseball in the province has grown each year, with 500 more girls picking up baseball in 2024 than 2022. There were approximately 1,300 girls registered in the province then, and that's up to 1800, said Baseball Manitoba program director James Zamko.
They want to continue to see that number grow, which is one of the goals behind the new 12U Division.
“This opportunity is going to help us recruit more players, and not just that, but help retain them,” Zamko said.
The 12U age group for the new division was picked strategically.
After the age of 12, they noticed a massive drop off in the number of girls playing baseball, Zamko said, and they hope this new division will change that.
“We wanted to try to, you know, give those girls an opportunity to play together and hope that's going to help retain them as they get older and help recruit new players,” he said.
The benefits of participating on an all girls team was seen first hand by their executive director Jason Miller last summer, who ran an all girls 15U team in the province, Zamko said.
“Just seeing how the girls interact with each other, and just the confidence that they have together, was night and day from when they're playing on the men's team,” he said.
The number of teams in the division and their locations is still up in the air, as it will depend on the level of interest from players. The hope is to have five teams spread throughout Winnipeg’s five associations, who can play each other in the city, in addition to teams outside of the city. It will be an abbreviated schedule the first year, playing 8-10 games with double-headers on Sundays. This hybrid approach will give girls the opportunity to continue to play on their co-ed or softball teams throughout the week if they want to, Zamko said.
Girls in the province don’t have to look far for inspiration of where they can go with the sport. Boissevain’s Zoe Hicks, who worked for the Los Angeles Dodgers, has been stellar on the international stage for Canada. In 2023, she was named the Most Valuable Player on the team.
And she’s not the only player in the province who has had success. There are three Manitobans currently on the winter roster for Canada, with Hicks, Liberty Aime and Ally Neufeld.
In addition to the new division, they’re also planning to host a Girls Baseball Day this year, Zamko said, and they have three female provincial teams at the 14U, 16U and 19U levels.
Looking forward, the goal for future seasons is to continue to expand all-girls divisions in the province.
“We’re hoping that if this division is successful that this is going to help lead to more divisions down the road,” he said.
“So in a perfect world, we've got girls divisions at each age level.”
Registration for the new division opened early February, and will stay open until April. Interested players/parents who would like to take part in the new division can register through Baseball Manitoba’s website.