Teams from across the region will descend upon Nelson as the Nelson Baseball Association hosts the 2024 West Kootenay Baseball League (WKBL) Majors Playoff Tournament at Queen Elizabeth Park.
As 2023 champs, Nelson earned home-field advantage for this year's five-day tournament, which welcomes seven teams from Castlegar, Trail and Beaver Valley to compete for this year's WKBL title.
The tournament runs from June 19-23. The full schedule is on the Nelson Baseball Association's Facebook page.
Visiting teams will be treated to a sneak peek at Nelson Baseball's new look. The association is thrilled to soft launch its reintroduction to the WKBL as the Nelson Aces. After extensive consultation and exploration, Nelson Baseball is retiring its former house ball logo and colours with a fresh new look by revisiting history.
As the rebranding initiative was underway, the Nelson Museum, Archives and Gallery coincidentally published photos from its sports archives, including images of the Nelson Aces, who took the field here in the Queen City circa 1953. It was also the nickname of Nelson Baseball coach and Canada's Women's National Team member Amanda (Ace) Asay, who tragically passed in a skiing accident in 2022. In her honour, Nelson Baseball applied the Aces name to its new girls-only program in 2023, which is now flourishing in its second year.
“Whether looking back, reflecting on Coach Amanda's influence, or vision-casting toward the future, it just seemed Aces tied many important threads together for us,” said Nelson Baseball president J. Stewart. “We quickly learned our potential new identity was right under our nose."
In other Nelson Baseball news, the association is proud to share that 26 of its players were selected to all-star and elite-level regional teams. These teams compete across B.C., Alberta, northern Washington and Idaho, and provide some players with opportunities to access post-secondary athletic scholarships.
The Kootenay Kestrels, an under-15 all-star program in partnership with Nelson Baseball, has expanded into playing seven regional tournaments and now regularly competes with the highest-performing programs in western Canada.
Whether it's introducing exclusive girls-only programming, developing all-star players, earning the right to host regional playoff tournaments, or creating a fresh new visual aesthetic for 2025, everything is coming up aces at Nelson Baseball.
