New Brunswick athletes depart for Canada Games in Niagara

Hundreds of New Brunswick youth athletes are heading to Ontario to compete against the best in the nation in the Canada Summer Games.

Team New Brunswick, which includes 346 athletes, gathered at the Greater Moncton Roméo LeBlanc International Airport on Friday morning to board a charter flight to the games. 

The Canada Games, hosted this year in Niagara, Ont., will feature more than 5,000 young athletes competing inter-provincially in 18 different sports. The competition begins Saturday and will continue until Aug. 21.

Sydney Arseneault, of Saint John, was preparing to leave to her second Canada Games to play on the softball team. She competed in badminton at the 2018 games in Red Deer, Alta.

"It's a higher level and you have to up your game to be equal with them or even compete. It's fun to see how you scale against everybody," she said.

Arseneault, 18, said her teammates were both nervous and excited while preparing to board their flight. For some of them, it'll be their first time on a plane.

"Everybody is all together, you stay in a village, it's an amazing experience," she said. 

The New Brunswick delegation also includes 80 coaches, managers, and technical staff, and 20 team members.

The province will have athletes competing in athletics, baseball, beach volleyball, box lacrosse, canoeing and kayaking, cycling, golf, mountain biking, rowing, rugby sevens, sailing, soccer, softball, swimming, tennis, triathlon, volleyball, and wrestling.

Matt Whipple is headed to his first games as coach of the softball team. 

"This has been such a long process that I think it's been surreal for a long time. I know they're excited to get going," he said.

Whipple said the softball tryout process for the games started two years ago,