‘We don’t take losing lightly’: Canova amateur baseball team remains competitive after ’09 title
One of the characteristics that the Canova amateur baseball team has maintained over the many years is its competitiveness.
- Jared Hegdahl
One of the characteristics that the Canova amateur baseball team has maintained over the many years is its competitiveness.
The team doesn’t like to lose and tries to avoid it at all costs. Canova won the Class B Amateur baseball state championship in 2009 and made it all the way back to the state tournament last year, but fell to Crofton.
“I think that there is a competitiveness on the team between the players but there’s also that close-knit bond that makes us a team that finds it very difficult to take a loss to anyone,” Canova manager Dave Gassman said about his team.
“I think that’s been a characteristic of our team over the years and we don’t take losing lightly.”
Canova was able to pick up another win on Thursday night, defeating the Mitchell Mad Dogs 13-1 at Cadwell Park in Mitchell during an amateur baseball matchup. With the win, Canova improved to 16-4 overall on the season.
Gassman said that although he was happy with the way his team played on Thursday, the team doesn’t take winning for granted.
“We need to realize that things like this happen sometimes and it’s probably not at true indication of how good we are,” Gassman said about the win over Mitchell.
“It doesn’t mean that we’re a better team than (Mitchell) it was just one of those nights where the ball bounced our way and things went our way. Hopefully the guys keep that in perspective. Every game is a new game… and sometimes the shoe is on the other foot, too.”
Another advantage that Canova has, according to Gassman, is the tight-knit bond between all the players. He said almost all the team is blood related in some way, and that baseball is a family affair in the town of Canova. There are four Gassman’s on the team, Garrett, who is Dave Gassman’s son, and Lincoln and Tucker who are Dave Gassman’s nephews.
“It’s really fun,” Dave Gassman said about the family dynamic on the team.
“I’ve enjoyed being around (Canova) long enough and being involved in the game to see kids that I’ve coached over the years get up there and play for the team. I mean I have a lot of relatives on the team and just about every kid on the team has blood running in Canova so it’s really exciting.”
He said all the players on the team really push each other to play well and keep improving every game. He also said a little luck thrown into the mix doesn’t hurt either.
“I always say that it’s better to be lucky than it is to be good,” Dave Gassman said with a chuckle.
“So hopefully we’ll get lady luck back on our side this year and some of those breaks will fall our way and we’ll come out on top.”
Tags: sports, baseball, canova
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