Black Bears beef up (for 2006 Canadians)

[Al Doran]

Friday, January 27, 2006
Article as posted in The Prince George Citizen

Black Bears beef up
by TED CLARKE, Citizen staff

It appears the Prince George Black Bears have added some teeth and a few 
claws to their fastball den.
The hosts of the 2006 Canadian senior men's fastpitch championship have 
secured the services national team pitcher Korrey Gareau for the 
tournament, Aug. 27-Sept. 3 at Spruce City Stadium.

Gareau, the top pitcher at the International Softball Congress world 
championship in 2005 and a three-time first-team all-star in the ISC world 
event, was announced Thursday as part of the Black Bears team.

Gareau, who lives in Victoria, says he's looking forward to the tournament. 
He knows what kind of support to expect for the home team, having played 
for the Prince George Blazers at the 1995 Canadian junior national 
championship in Prince George.

"I played for P.G. juniors in '95 in P.G. when they hosted nationals and it 
was a blast," said Gareau, in a media release. "I truly enjoyed the fan 
support we got that year and I am speculating it will be even bigger this 
year as some of the local talent have become great ball players and have 
proven they can beat anyone.

"I have been on the oppposite side of the fan support (in Prince George) 
and it is an experience some teams might not be able to overcome."

Gareau will join a pitching staff that includes former Prince George 
resident Collin McKenzie, Gareau's friend since childhood in Victoria, and 
Ryan Brand of Calgary. Gareau and Brand's signings were among several the 
Black Bears announced at Thursday's news conference.

Evan Potskin, 31, a former Team Canada outfielder, initially said he would 
play for the Vancouver Gray Sox in the senior tournament, claiming at the 
time the Vancouver team had a better shot at winning the national title. 
But the signing of Gareau has led to a change of heart.

"I had a chance to play with Korrey Gareau in 2002 with Victoria and he's 
one of the best pitchers in the world," Potskin said. "With him, and Collin 
McKenzie and Brand, we have a really good chance of winning. We have a 
really good hitting team, too. "Definitely, we have a chance to win the 
whole thing now, with Gareau pitching. Hopefully I can hit the ball like 
I'm known to, and play good defensively, and we can score some runs."

The Black Bears have signed Darryl Sandback of Clearwater, a member of the 
2005 ISC world champion County Materials team of Wisconsin, whom McKenzie 
called "one of the toughest outs he's ever faced." They also added Harvey 
Stevenson of Victoria, another former national team member, who provides 
the team some depth at catcher, and he'll likely back up homebrew Chad 
Ghostkeeper. Ghostkeeper was the all-star catcher at last year's senior 
championship in St. Thomas, Ont., where his hot bat helped the Black Bears 
to a seventh-place finish. Rick Rozychuk of Calgary also joins the fold as 
a position player. Rozychyuk played for the Calgary team at the 2005 world 
championship.

"Our goal is to playing (in the championship game) on Sunday," said Black 
Bears general manager Jeff Hill. "With the players we've just recruited, 
we've given ourselves a good shot at being there."

Black Bears head coach Nino Fabbro admits he can't wait to see his team at 
full strength on the field. Although the team will play about 50 games to 
prepare for the senior tournament, most of the out-of-town talent won't be 
available to the Black Bears until the week of the tournament.

"I'm pretty excited about it," Fabbro said. "It kind of reminds me of the 
Prince George Lumbermen team we had in '77, when Victoria Payless was the 
only team that could beat us. With Evan coming, and the pitchers that we've 
got, it adds so much to the depth of the team. We filled the spots in the 
lineup we needed to get filled."

Dave Koch and Len Potskin will serve as Fabbro's assistant coaches

http://www.canadians2006.net/NewsDesk.html

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