The Yukon Little League wrapped up their season Sunday with a barbecue celebration at their Kwanlin Dün field.

The Star spoke with co-founders Sara (board chair) and Clark (head coach) Skelton after the festivities wrapped up and asked them how the day went.

“Great. Couldn’t ask for a better day,” said Clark. “Nice and sunny. Hot. A lot of people showed up. Kids had fun.”

Sara added, “We had a great turnout from our little league but we also had some members of the community come, which is really wonderful. It’s nice to get to know some of the people around the ball field. Everybody seems very happy to see it being used and to see the kids playing, but there is nothing better than watching kids play baseball. It is so fun just to watch.”

Sara described how their season went.

“For our first season, we’re thrilled with the way everything’s gone. It was a lot of preparation in the beginning and I think that paid off later. We were a little bit frustrated in the beginning locating a field. But once we found the field and Kwanlin Dün allowed us the use of our field, then everything sort of fell into place. But I think a huge part of what made this league successful this year is the parents’ help.

“And we have great kids. We have kids that love baseball, that have positive attitudes, that are really hard workers, that want to get better.”

Sara said there’s been vast improvement in the kids’ play during the season.

“Seeing their progress has been amazing. They’ve improved so much.”

Clark said that improvement has been one of the season’s highlights, as well as having the backing of the community.

“Once the community got involved, that was when things just got off the ground, which is great.”

Sara added, “Having Haines, Alaska, come as well was a blast. So positive.

“I also think as we’ve been through a pandemic and a lot of youth recreation completely stopped, it’s just so amazing to see everything get back. And I think everybody that took it for granted before is not taking it for granted. Seeing my kids play baseball is amazing.”

Sara said they haven’t done it alone.

“We got a lot of help. We’re in the forefront, but it’s the parents at the practices stepping up and pitching in.”

Clark said the parents also helped by getting them in contact with the right people to make their dream a reality.

The series with the Haines, Alaska team was also a highlight of the season for the league.

“It was a blast,” recalled Sara. “They were so happy. We were so happy just to be able to do something like that. Great vibe, we had music playing. We had a lot of people watching from the community.”

Clark added, “That’s what I want for these kids, to be playing teams like that, because that’s how you get better, is when you play teams that have been playing for a while and the game’s faster and you gotta step up.

“They had such a good time.

“It was some of those kids’ first baseball game ever. They play each other here like, scrimmage games, but like, first game, with a real umpire. And I was just so proud. We jumped out to a six-nothing lead. Their pitcher, he was doing good, but he just wasn’t throwing strikes. He was throwing hard and the kids were like, ‘Oh my God, this guy’s throwing hard.’”

The Skeltons said the Haines team had quite a few older kids.

“I think we ended up not even really keeping track of the score,” said Sara. “I think they won both games. However, the kids, they held their own.”

Clark added, “I think the score of the first game was 17-10, which is like ‘that’s phenomenal.’ Some of these kids have never played baseball.

“That team is good. That team’s been playing together since they were like, 11. And there’s a couple of kids on that team that don’t live in Alaska. They only spend summers there. They live in Seattle. And they’re really good.”

The Haines team were 13-16 years of age. The YLL team ranged from about nine to 16 years of age

“We had more younger kids,” related Sara. “But they did great.”

“It’s funny because we were worried like, ‘Is there gonna be enough kids here to play?’ and there were too many kids,” said Clark. “The way we did it was every kid hits, but not everybody’s in the field. I think our lineup had 24 kids in it to hit.”

“All the kids wanted to play,” added Sara. “All the kids had so much fun. They made new friends. They had a great time. It was a really positive vibe. It wasn’t competitive.

“The parents were incredible. We made friends with the parents, so it’ll definitely happen again.”

The baseball-founding couple had an update on the league’s future field as well.

“We are still working on the Riverdale fields,” advised Sara. “We have a plan, we’ll have it ready for the beginning of next season. So we have Arctic Backhoe that’s doing it all, but we didn’t want to do it partway through the summer and have to redo it, so we’ll do the field prep right before the snow comes. And that way early next year, it’ll be playable when summer comes, and then hopefully we’ll have younger kids, so we’re going to need more playable fields.”

Clark said the Riverdale diamond is smaller, so would probably be for 8 to 12-year-olds.

“Kids that are just learning the game.”

Clark described his vision for the future of little league baseball in the Yukon.

“We play Haines, we play Skagway. My dream is to get the communities going like Watson Lake, you got a team in Dawson, you got Whitehorse teams, Teslin. You’re playing the Yukon communities but then also, Alaska is right there too. So, we all could play each other.”

Sara said the Haines team even invited them to a tournament the following weekend.

“We were tempted but I had to shut that down,” she said, adding that they would have only had six days to prepare for the trip to the tourney.

Sara said the Skeltons are planning on travelling to Alaska next year.

“We’re planning to do a bit of traveling and for sure in Alaska because that’s a great trip. And then hopefully down south as well.”

Sara said there are plans in the works to expand the ages of the kids involved to create a younger division.

“For that, we will need more baseball coaches. And we can help with the training. We’d like to do some coaching clinics, pitching and hitting clinics, throughout the winter.”

Sara said Clark was coaching all four teams with the help of their assistant coaches this season.

Clark said new kids keep coming out and since their parents have played the game, they know a little bit of baseball technique and can pass it on to their kids.

In addition to coaches Sara said older players took on a role in developing the young ballplayers skills.

“As we had kids of different ages playing together, the older kids took on mentorship roles with the younger kids, and they’ve all developed really cool relationships and friendships and some of our older kids have really stepped up as leaders.”

They are planning on holding the pitching and coaching clinics at the Canada Games Centre.

Sara said,”I think the kids just need to come out to our drop-in skills over the winter and try it out. If they haven’t tried hardball, try it out. It’s a lot of fun.”

Sara added, “We do update our Facebook frequently. So if there’s anything coming up, it’s https://www.facebook.com/yukonlittleleague.”