The Yukon Sundogs U17 minor softball team took part in an exhibition tournament in Saskatoon recently.

The tournament took place June 21-25.

The coaches on the team were Mark King and Jeff Seaman.

The Star spoke with Sundog player Diego Brisebois-Bourget shortly after the memorable event.

He said this was the first Outside softball tournament he played in.

"I played in a couple local basketball tournaments, but nothing with softball."

Brisebois-Bourget said the tournament went well.

"We played some really good teams. There was a lot of competition. I'll say that. These guys have been playing for their whole lives. And then we come in here playing for a couple of years at most.

"They can play year-round too, because of all the facilities that they have. The Gordie Howe Training Complex is ridiculous. It's a $10 million building. They have 20 batting cages. They have a big field where you can practice. It's indoors, too. You can practice all year round. It's really cool."

Brisebois-Bourget said the Sundogs played four games against Saskatoon teams.

"We played three games against the same team. Out of five. Which is kind of weird, but we lost all three of them."

Their opponent was the Saskatoon Selects.

"There was probably a lot of kids who wanted to join that team. And those were the best of the best. For us, it's just you sign up and you're on the team."

Brisebois-Bourget said overall, the games went well.

"Obviously, four losses doesn't sound very good, but I think – I mean, it's crazy. I came back and played a game yesterday. I was miles better than I was before I left. Just because of the pitch speed that they pitch at. It's 65 to 70 miles an hour. And here, it's 50. It kind of threw me off, actually. I was swinging early."

Brisebois-Bourget said he came back from the tourney with a lot more confidence.

"I know I made a lot of improvements over there and I think I brought it back here and played pretty well in our game yesterday." Of his play at the tourney, Brisebois-Bourget said, "Personally, I didn't play very well. I mean, as good as I pretty much could. I struck out a lot because it's super tough to hit those guys. I did get a couple of singles. No extra base hits. Just singles. Played some pretty good defence, though."

Brisebois-Bourget played second base and left field. He explained how he ended up in left field.

"I made one error. And so the next inning, because our left fielder had made an error in a game prior, they said, 'Why don't you guys switch?' And it went really well, because he was a natural second baseman. And I played pretty good in the outfield. So it turned out pretty well for us."

Brisebois-Bourget ended up with only two errors in the whole tournament. Needless to say, he had some memorable moments in the tourney.

"A lot of the memorable moments weren't necessarily the games, they were the activities that we did, as a team. First night, we got there, got back to the hotel. There was a Popeyes fast food restaurant a two minute walk away. All 12 of us went in there and bothered them right before closing. So that was fun. "Last day, we played our two games. The last game that we played, we won, so we were 0-4 and then we won a game. So really felt good about that."

The Sundogs played the U15 Saskatoon Selects in their big victory.

"We got destroyed by the U17s and then played the U15s," recalled Brisebois-Bourget.

The team also went go-karting on the last day after their games. First they enjoyed the hotel pool (complete with a waterslide), and then went go-karting at the Stoked Centre, an indoor facility with an arcade and a go-kart track. Brisebois-Bourget said, "I came in third I think, out of 12 people, so I'll take that. I literally never played go karts before, so it was my first experience. It was great. I want to go back. "The first race that we did, they put us on kids mode, because they wanted to see how we were. And then the second race that we had, they put us on adult mode, twice as fast. So it was really fun. All the drifting that you can do, I was pretty good at it, if I do say so myself. "In the same building, there's an arcade. So we played in the arcade for a couple hours. And then there was also a restaurant, so just had dinner and then after that we went out to see the new Spider Man movie. It was such a good movie."

The team also had a training session with Junior women's national softball coach Keith MackIntosh before the tournament.

"He was super-nice, not intimidating at all," said Brisebois-Bourget.

Brisebois-Bourget's team-mates enjoyed themselves as well.

"I think everyone thought it was a super-fun tournament. It wasn't necessarily about the games. It was just about the experience of being with a team far away from town, from home. Really. It was a lot of fun. They enjoyed it."

Not surprisingly, lots of team bonding occurred.

"I was only close with a couple of the people who were on the team at first, but now we're all pretty good friends. So a really good team, in my opinion." Brisebois-Bourget became fast friends with his roommates.

"All the spots were taken up, so I was left with two people that I didn't really know that well.

We're really good friends now," related Brisebois-Bourget.

Brisebois-Bourget added, "It was one of the most fun trips I've ever had."

Next up for the team is a tourney in Dawson City on Discovery Day weekend, Aug. 17-21.