Little League Softball World Series provides field of dreams for Team Canada

Team Canada was knocked out of the Little League Softball World Series on Tuesday — but rest assured the players' dreams are alive and well.

A squad from St. Albert, Alta., represented Canada at the international tournament in Greenville, N.C., having first won provincial and national playdowns to earn that honour.

The team of 12- and 13-year-old girls was eliminated after falling 11-9 to Latin America and 12-9 to New England. However, the trip south showed them what was possible through softball.

"I think they definitely dream," said team manager Heather Danilak, a 40-year-old born in Edmonton. "They definitely see that softball can take them places and can let them travel and softball can let them meet many people across their lifetime."

To that end, 60 players from Athletes Unlimited (AU), the professional women's softball circuit, arrived at the World Series earlier this week and met with their younger counterparts on Tuesday. The AU players will compete in front of the Little Leaguers on Wednesday at Stallings Stadium.

Among those players is Toronto's Victoria Hayward, who made her Team Canada debut at 16 and won Olympic bronze at Tokyo 2020.

"I didn't have access to anyone like that when I was younger and I didn't really even have the dreams. I didn't really even know what the possibilities were," Hayward told CBC Sports. "I wish that I had the opportunity to meet someone that was able to accomplish things I wanted to accomplish when I was young."