By Darren
Steinke
Gordie Howe Sports Complex
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| Haley Jaman sets for an at bat for the Shock. |
The
20-year-old outfielder with the Saskatoon Shock and University of Saskatchewan
women’s club team has been around the game for as long as she can remember
beginning with watching her older sister, Jocelyn Jaman, play the sport. From
that start, Haley Jaman began playing tee-ball at around age five and proceeded
to grow up playing through the ranks of Saskatoon’s minor softball system.
“Half the girls that I am still friends with today I started
playing ball with since we started playing zone ball,” said Jaman, whose Shock
will play in Softball Canada’s women’s nationals that run August 10 to 14 at
the Gordie Howe Sports Complex. “We’ve grown up together, and we still keep in
touch.
“In the winter, you kind of drift apart, but once summer
starts, you are back together with your friends again. I think that was the
biggest thing. I love the game.
“I love the competitiveness. Obviously, I love it enough I
want to share it with other people. Definitely, the people and the connections
I’ve made were like the best part about it.”
The
connections have gone beyond those she’s made with her teammates over the
years. Jaman has gotten a taste of the coaching side of the game for about the
past five years. While attending high school at Centennial Collegiate, Jaman
took part in the softball academy at Tommy Douglas Collegiate.
Through the
softball academy at Tommy Douglas, Jaman completed a coaching component in
Grade 10 that had her work with kids at various schools around the city, and
she realize she liked that aspect of the game. Jaman got a little more involved
with coaching when longtime elite level coach and player Jon Equina asked her
to come out and help with various camps.
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| Haley Jaman, right, explains a drill to some players. |
“I feel like it is very rewarding to see more of a
progression. It has been something I knew I wanted to do since I was a kid.”
So far
during her coaching, Jaman has noticed there are times young female players are
more receptive to pick up a teaching point, if it comes from a female coach. As
a player, she said she has times where she’s picked up pointers and messages
from a female coach, which sometimes weren’t picked up when a male coach delivered
those same pointers and messages.
“I think that is kind of the cool thing that the girls have
someone closer to their age and a girl to relate to,” said Jaman. “That is exactly
why I do it.
“Eventually, I want my own team, and I want to coach a team
all summer. For now, I like just floating and helping when I can.”
Equina, who
is the Shock’s head coach, has enjoyed coaching and coaching with Jaman over
the years.
“Coaching Haley (Jaman) is an absolute treat,” said Equina.
“She works hard every single time she comes out to the park.
“Whatever you tell her, she is definitely open minded to try
it whether she has never tried it before. She is the kind of player and coach
that she is willing to try different things in order to see different results.
She is definitely ready to go outside the box in a lot of things player and
coach.”
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| Haley Jaman patrols the outfield for the Shock. |
“My biggest thing as a coach is I am trying to get the next
generation of coaches now in line,” said Equina. “I’ve been doing this for over
22 years and the same with the other guys that are with me and older.
“Now, it is the next generation, and the females especially
that we need to get involved coaching. With her in mind, it was just perfect,
because she loves helping out. She loves volunteering.
“Now being able to properly coach or how to coach was the
big thing, and she has learned so well. She is excited to do it every time.
Passion is something you can’t really teach.”
While she
has been piling up the experiences on the coaching front, Jaman is still pumped
for the opportunities she gets to play. After graduating from Centennial
Collegiate in 2019, Jaman exhausted her eligibility for under-19 level ball as
teams played an exhibition schedule locally in 2020 due to measures that were
in place to battle the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic that gripped the world.
Jaman had
been playing out of the Hustlers zone and was part of group of players that
didn’t want to be split up among the adult teams that existed in the city.
Jaman and her Hustlers teammates joined up with a group of similar aged players
from the Lazers zone to form the Shock, who had a handful of roster spots
filled by players from other programs.
Equina
agreed to be the Shock’s head coach and the team hit the diamonds from there.
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| Haley Jaman demonstrates a diving catch drill as a coach. |
“He is our coach, and that is how we got to stay playing together. One of the coaches actually came up to me and told me that the U of S has a team. Last year, I played with the U of S, and it was like a totally different experience.
“They were so cool. It was like just a little bite of what
you get to do in college, but like playing just at home.”
The Shock
won Softball Saskatchewan’s under-23 A provincial title sweeping a
best-of-three series 2-0 over the Saskatoon Sabres. The Shock closed out the
set with a 5-0 victory in Game 2 on July 9 at Bob Van Impe Stadium.
At
nationals, the Shock will play in the women’s draw as there weren’t enough
teams committed across the country to play an under-23 national championship
tournament.
Jaman said
she has never played in a Softball Canada nationals at home, so she is pumped
for that opportunity this year. Besides having the support of family and
friends in the stands, Jaman said a number of the girls she coaches want to
come watch her play.
“I think that is going to be a really big difference this
year that is going to work to our advantage having people to watch us,” said
Jaman. “All my little girls (I coach) they already ask, ‘Send us your
schedule.’
“All their parents want to know when we are playing, because
they want to come support us. It works both ways. It is good for us, but then
it is good for them to see this different level of ball.”
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| Haley Jaman plans to be involved in softball for a long time. |
“Once I kind of feel like my time playing is done like I
said, I want my own team,” said Jaman. “I want to be able to grow with a group
of girls and see them from where they started and kind of take them the way
I’ve had a coach.
“I’d like to do that. In that way, I definitely just want to
keep helping out. My kids will play.
“They don’t have a choice. They’ll play ball, so they’ll get
a coach from their mom.”
