Verge: Asay’s legacy lives on in annual jamboree set for Saturday
The third annual Amanda Asay Memorial Jamboree will take place in Burnaby, B.C. on Saturday. Photo: B.C. Baseball
May 10, 2024
By Melissa Verge
Canadian Baseball Network
It happens every spring when the snow melts, the chalk lines are drawn, and the first pitch is thrown.
A new season of baseball begins.
For many years, Amanda Asay, red and white jersey on, No. 19 on the back, was an important part of it, ready to give her all for Canada.
And although for the past three years she hasn’t been there to see the beginning of baseball season, hasn’t helped her teammates to victory like she did so many times before - including three bronze and two silver medals at World Cups, and a silver medal at the 2015 Pan Am Games. The way she played baseball. The Asay way. It lived on, long after her cleats last dug into the dirt, or her teammates last called her “Ace.”
Asay passed away in a tragic skiing accident back in 2022.
The longtime player on the Women’s National Team was passionate and selfless on the field, a legacy that is being shared with young girls from across the province this weekend in Burnaby, B.C.
The Third annual Amanda Asay Memorial Jamboree to be held on Saturday will see approximately 150 girls come out to learn about Asay, play baseball, and grow the game by inspiring the next generation of female ball players in the province.
Everything that she was - a strong competitor, and a supportive teammate. They want to bring that same energy to the event, said Stacy Fournier, coordinator of the jamboree and longtime teammate and friend of Asay.
“[We’re] providing a safe space for the girls to play baseball and be comfortable in their environment and kind of let them know who Amanda was and what she stood for,” Fournier said.
The number of girls attending the jamboree has continued to grow from when it first started back in 2022. The first year they held the event, they had maybe 80 girls come out to play. Last year, they had just over 100, and on Saturday, they’re expecting around 150 athletes at Kensington Park Baseball Fields.
Originally Fournier started working with Baseball B.C. because of her love for the sport, but the connection to Asay has given it a new and special meaning for her. She played with her on Team B.C. off and on since 2012, and also suited up with her in red and white with the Women’s National Team.
When pitchers were struggling on the mound, Asay always knew what to say to help them turn the game around, she said.
During one challenging outing for the Women’s National Team, Asay, who was catching at the time, walked out to the mound for a meeting with her.
It was a joke that was years in the making - a couple of years earlier in a friendly series with the U.S., she’d also been having a challenging time, and their dugout started trying to get in her head, chanting how many balls it had been since she’d last thrown a strike.
“Sixxxx, sevennnnnn,” she remembers them chanting.
So when Asay meets her on the mound during this outing a couple of years later, she just started chanting “sixxxxxx, sevennnnnn,” she said.
“She’d say something to make me laugh, kind of relax a little bit and she was able to do that with a lot of people,” she said.
Amanda Asay (Prince George, B.C.) was an ace pitcher and longtime leader for the Women’s National Team. Photo: Baseball Canada
That supportive spirit is part of what made her such a great teammate. You knew not only were you going to get her best every day, but that she was going to have your back while she was doing it, she said. Off the field, that support continued. Even though Asay always had a ton of things going on, she made time for her teammates. Whether talking about baseball or life, she made time for a phone call to chat with her.
It’s a supportive spirit that Niki Boyd also experienced. Boyd played with Asay from 2011 to 2018 on the Women’s National Team.
Growing up, Asay was her inspiration. She had her baseball card, and remembers looking at it and thinking to herself how cool it would be to be just like her, and play baseball at a high level while representing her country. In 2011, that dream happened when Boyd made the Women’s National Team, and in 2012, she got the chance to play with her at the World Cup in Edmonton.
“I’d be lying if I said I wasn't intimidated by her at first,” Boyd said. “She's like THE Amanda Asay. But obviously that feeling quickly faded because she just made you feel like you belonged, and she never made anyone feel like they didn't deserve to be there.”
For the next six years, she was always a supportive teammate, and she became more than that to Boyd.
“I considered her a friend throughout those years, she just truly made the world a better place,” Boyd said, who will be helping out with the jamboree on the 11th. “And obviously we all miss her very much.”
If she were here to see the jamboree and how it’s grown, Fournier and Boyd know Asay would have a smile on her face - and not out of pride that it’s named after her, but to see how the sport has grown for girls in the province since her passing.
“I think she would just be excited to see so many girls playing baseball and doing it because they enjoy it,” Fournier said.
“She’d be so ecstatic,” Boyd said.
“She was always excited to take part in those camps, and it means so much to her because she loves the sport of baseball. And if she could take part in helping girls create that same passion that she has for the game, that would just make her so happy.”