The Alberta Summer Games is being hosted in Okotoks this weekend, and several Strathmore athletes are representing Zone 2 in a battle against the province's best athletes.

Among them are softball players Marika Sevcik and Julia Szasz, who are also teammates on the Strathmore Thunder U15 Div1 Sevcik softball team and recently won a gold medal.

Szasz has been playing softball for six years, but said it's her first time at the summer games and so far it's been a fantastic weekend.

"I think it's really exciting, it's definitely an experience I've never had before and I just really like the concept of them putting random girls together to try new things," Szasz said.

Sevcik is also really excited to be at the tournament and meet new people, although facing off against the best athletes in the province was a bit daunting at first.

"I was really excited at the start and I was super pumped to get to play with the new team and create new friendships and stuff as soon as we got there, just seeing the amount of people that were actually here and the amount of athletes that were here, it made me a little nervous," Sevcik said.

Luckily for Sevcik, Szaz, and the entire Zone 2 team, nerves didn't seem to impact them too much as they cruised to a 17-6 win in their first match earlier today (Friday). With a win under their belt the nerves definitely died down for Sevcik and the team, and now she's looking forward to playing with her high-level Zone 2 teammates to see how far they can  go.

"As soon as one person has a good day, then everybody else starts to have a good day too. And once everybody can put those good days together, it just creates magic and it's so much fun to work with these girls," Sevcik said. 

Both girls have also enjoyed competing at the provincial level, and for Szasz she's enjoyed going against both new and familiar faces.

"We've already seen some of the girls that we're playing today, we're familiar with a few of them. So it's not as different as I expected it to be, but it's still pretty challenging," Szasz said.

Both Szasz and Sevcik are looking forward to what should be an exciting and action-filled weekend, and hope to represent Strathmore and Zone 2 to the best of their abilities and hopefully bring back a medal.

"I'm excited to just play more games and to continue playing to get to the gold. I think it's gonna be so much fun, I'm just excited for the next at-bat honestly," Sevcik said.

The full list of Strathmore athletes competing in the Alberta Summer Games is:

  • Gray Jensen
  • Spencer Johansen
  • Indi Mertz
  • Alisa Wurz (manager)
  • Declan Wurz
  • Charlie Yorston
  • Julia Szasz
  • Marika Sevcik
  • David Sevcik (coach)

Send your news tips, story ideas, pictures, and videos to news@strathmorenow.com   

Related Stories