Patel’s passion for cricket opens doors

16-year-old got tryout for Canadian under-19 World Cup team  

By Darren Steinke
Gordie Howe Sports Complex

Shaurya Patel is one of Cricket Saskatoon’s elite junior players.

Shaurya Patel loves the game of cricket, and he believes the sport loves him back.

When his family moved from India to Canada seven years ago, the 16-year-old wanted to continue in the sport he was passionate about. No matter where his family went, Patel found doors kept opening for him to continue in the sport.

“I started playing like when I was three or four years old,” said Patel. “I moved to Canada.

“My dad was like there is an academy here (in Saskatoon), if you want to join. I am like, “OK. I should.” I came here and met Harpartap (Harry) Sandhu my coach.

“He supported me a lot, and I’m here now.”

Patel joined Cricket Saskatoon’s junior program in 2023. When he signed up, Patel didn’t know anyone, but he found he bonded with the existing group of players and coaches quickly.

In September of 2023, Patel found himself playing for the Meewasin Masters squad that won the Saskatoon Junior Cricket League under-15 title. He found Masters captain Aryan Patel to be one of his early backers and developed a fast friendship with him.

“Aryan Patel supported me a lot,” said Shaurya Patel, who has trained a number of times at the Indoor Training Centre on the Gordie Howe Sports Complex grounds. “He is the one who trusted me in battling, in bowling and in all things.

“When I got a little older, I knew all the people. Lots of people came after I came.”

Patel said he found a home with the cricket community in Saskatoon. Away from the game, he said everyone treats each other well. When it comes to game time, Patel said the focus turns to what needs to be done to succeed in the match.

“It is amazing,” said Patel, who stands 5-foot-6 and weighs 128 pounds. “They all are so thankful.

“I love them like friends. Inside the ground when the match starts, we’re not friends. We’re teammates.”

Sandhu, who is the youth head coach for Cricket Saskatoon, has enjoyed coaching Patel since the youngster came aboard. The field boss said Patel always wants to learn new things and adapt to challenges. On top of wanting to learn new things, Sandhu was impressed by the fact Patel hasn’t complained about any of the instructions he has received from his coaches.

Shaurya Patel tried out for the Canadian under-19 World Cup team. 

“Coaching Shaurya, it has been quite a bit of a journey,” said Sandhu. “He started here three years ago.

“He played a little bit of cricket on the streets here with his dad, and then his grandfather was a cricketer, so cricket was in his genes. He is a quick learner. The most important thing about Shaurya is he is a very like a hard-headed guy.

“Whenever it requires for him to stay on the crease – crease means to stay on the wicket – not to get out, he tries to stay as long as he can. He is a very competitive guy in cricket.”

This past May, Patel’s journey in cricket took a new exciting turn. Cricket Canada announced he was a probable for the Canadian under-19 World Cup team and was to attend a preparation camp in Vancouver. Patel almost couldn’t believe the news when he was informed by Sandhu.

“I almost cried then,” said Patel, who is a Grade 11 student at Centennial Collegiate. “I am like, “You’re joking.”

“Then, he showed me the things and all. I was just really happy. Then, I was selected from B.C., so I went to Ontario to do my best in Ontario.

“It was just amazing.”

Patel was announced this past July as being on the shortlist of 32 players for the main selection camp for the Canadian under-19 World Cup team in Toronto. Sandhu was pleased with how Patel played during that journey, even with ultimately not being able to make the Canadian under-19 World Cup team this time around.

“We took him to Vancouver there were the Western Canadian tryouts were happening,” said Sandhu. “He scored the highest runs there.

“From there, he got selected and he (went) to Toronto where the big camp happened. He kind of didn’t get the right chance there. He was supposed to bat one down, which means when one batter gets out he needs to bat second.

“He only got chance one, and he didn’t perform. It is still an excuse, but we were hoping that he would get more chances when he went down east playing with the other guys.”

Looking back at the Ontario camp, Sandhu said the biggest adjustment Patel had to make was seeing how fast the bowlers at that camp threw the ball.

Shaurya Patel enjoys the Cricket community in Saskatoon.

“When he plays out there, there are kids from Toronto, and they have been training all year round,” said Sandhu. “With us being in Saskatoon, we have a problem with indoor facilities.

“We don’t get the proper run ups, especially with bowlers. When you get the bowlers who are bowling about 135 to 138 kilometres per hour, that is a problem where our kids can’t really compete at that level. It is not that they can’t.

“It is that they haven’t practiced on those speeds yet.”

Sandhu believes Patel would have a better chance to make the Canadian roster, if he had more experience against bowlers who can throw the ball at elite speeds for his age group.

“The only issue is exposure,” said Sandhu. “Exposure to the extreme speeds, he doesn’t have it here in Saskatoon.

“I think he needs more competition now, and once he is getting into that level of competition he is getting better, which I have seen so far. He is a very quick learner, so he adapts so good at those things.”

Patel would love to crack the roster of one of Cricket Canada’s national teams one day. He added all the junior players he plays with and against inside the Cricket Saskatoon junior program have those same aspirations too.

“It is not only my dream,” said Patel. “All the people who play here it is their dream to play for Canada.

“They do their best to represent in Canada. That is what I am doing. I’ll do my best to get on an actual Canadian team and play World Cup.”

Sandhu said the sky was the limit for how far Patel could go in the sport. The veteran coach said other doors may open in the future for his young player noting B.C. Place in Vancouver is hosting a new indoor league in the Canada Super 60 tournament.

“We went there this fall, and there was a big tournament happening,” said Sandhu. “They pay you good money, if you represent any of those teams.

“If he is playing good, there is a chance that there are many leagues coming up, and he is going to compete. If he is going to compete and he is good, those teams they are going to pay him hefty. They are going to pay him like 30,000 to 40,000 U.S. dollars per season.”

As for Patel, he wants to play the sport for as long as he can.

Shaurya Patel aims to play cricket long into the future.

“I want to play this forever,” said Patel. “Cricket has to support me as well.

“I want to play this forever. I’ll try my best for that. If I get on Canada’s team or something, then I will have to play forever.

“I’ll try my best for that. All people here want to play forever. That is why they are here.”

For more information about Cricket Saskatoon, feel free to check out their website at www.cricketsaskatoon.com.

Farmer embarks on final Huskies hurrah

By Darren Steinke
Gordie Howe Sports Complex

Kendra Farmer does a practice run at the Track and Field Track.

Kendra Farmer plans to soak in and enjoy her U Sports track and field career before it is gone.

The 23-year-old Saskatoon product is embarking on her final season of U Sports eligibility with the University of Saskatchewan Huskies Women’s Track and Field Team. After graduating from Centennial Collegiate in June of 2017, Farmer, who is a sprints specialist, joined the Huskies in the fall of that year and has been with that program ever since.

During the spring and summer months, Farmer is a regular at the Track and Field Track on the Gordie Howe Sports Complex grounds training and racing as a competitor and coaching young athletes with the Running Wild Athletics Club.

“I feel like every year I’ve kind of went in just really like always looking like performance wise for myself,” said Farmer. “I think this year obviously I would love to improve on my performances from last year.

“I think I am just really like going in and just like excited to and ready to just like embrace the experience fully. I think I am just like planning on just like taking it all in (and) hopefully passing on the love and the spirit to all the new rookies and the rest of the athletes on the team to move on forward with the Huskies spirit. Honestly, it is weird for sure.

“I thankfully have had my time to accept that this will be my last year.”

Last season with the Huskies, Farmer won silver in the women’s 300-metre race and gold in the women’s 4 X 200-metre and 4 X 400-metre relays at the Canada West championships. She helped the Huskies capture a fourth consecutive Canada West team title.

Farmer ran the 300-metre final at the Canada West championships in a time of 38.32 seconds, which was a new record for the Huskies women’s team. The old mark of 38.44 seconds was posted by Joanne McTaggart back in 1975.

Farmer said that record and the fact the Huskies women’s team has won the Canada West title in her previous four seasons of eligibility are her biggest highlights with the program.

“Breaking the Huskie record last year in 300-metre (race) was a huge goal for me kind of honestly since I started Huskies,” said Farmer, who stand 5-foot-5. “That was a really big personal accomplishment.

Kendra Farmer takes flight at the Canada Summer Games Trials.

“Team wise, I think just like showing up with the girls every year and getting that Canada West banner and getting those second place U Sports performances. Both of those have just like been really exciting, and I’ve just like have seen our team bond more and more each year. Just getting closer and getting those wins together has been really awesome.”

At the U Sports championships, Farmer took home silver medals in the women’s 4 X 200-metre and 4 X 400-metre relays. She helped the Huskies team finish second overall.

Farmer was also named the winner of the outstanding Student-Athlete Community Service Award at both the Canada West and U Sports championships. She has also been a U Sports academic all-Canadian for the past five straight campaigns including the 2020-21 campaign where all U Sports nationals were cancelled due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic that has gripped the world and athletes still pursued their studies.

This season, Farmer will get to go out with a couple of special opportunities to go along with taking part in the Sanderson Classic to be held at the Saskatoon Fieldhouse on January 13 and 14, 2023. The Huskies will host the Canada West Championships on February 24 and 25, 2023 and the U Sports Championships on March 9 to 11, 2023 at the Saskatoon Fieldhouse.

The Huskies last hosted the U Sports Championships way back in the 2005-06 campaign. Farmer will get to graduate from the Huskies with her last two big meets to be held at home.

“It is pretty cool,” said Farmer, who studies in the engineering program at U of S. “It will be really fun ending it in front of a home crowd.

“It will be a little more nerve-racking, because I have all of the family and friends here. That is also awesome, because there is more support. We’ll have all of the cheers and the big crowd too.

“It is a pretty cool way to end my career. I’m excited about that. That will be sweet.”

Jason Reindl, who is the head coach of both the U of Saskatchewan Huskies Men’s and Women’s Track and Field Teams, found it hard to put into words what it has meant to have Farmer as part of the women’s team. Reindl became the Huskies head coach in June of 2017, and he said Farmer has been key creating a great vibe and culture for the program.

“I cannot put the amount of positives into words,” said Reindl. “She was one of the first main recruits when I took over in the summer of 2017 that was coming into the program.

Kendra Farmer, second from left, was Huskies rookie of the year in 2017-18.

“Just her leadership and her development, the support that she has really given this program has been I’ll use the term remarkable.”

Reindl is happy he gets to coach Farmer with the Huskies for one more season and that she will have two special opportunities in her final season with the Huskies hosting conference and national championships.

“It is going to be a little bit of a unique year in the sense that we are hosting both the Canada West and the U Sports championships,” said Reindl. “For her to end her Huskies career as a fifth year of eligibility with the two biggest meets of the year at home, it is going to be a pretty special opportunity for her, her family, her friends and just all the relationships she has made over these last couple of years, because everyone is going to be able to come out and support her and the rest of the team.”

Farmer said one of the big turning points in her track and field career was winning the Patricia Lawson Trophy Huskies Female Rookie of the Year for the entire Huskies program in 2017-18.

“I can tell you when I got that award I was not expecting it,” said Farmer, who also claimed the Huskies Track and Field female rookie of the year award that is named after McTaggart. “That was a really exciting experience for me.

“I think that was really good, because it kind of solidified me as actually a Huskie that can go on and do things. I had expectations for myself, but I didn’t really know how far I would be able to go. I think getting that award really kind of helped step up my goals a bit.

“After that kind of first year, it was when I really kind of started eyeing down those records that Huskie 300-metre record and getting some of the higher-level awards, which I guess would be a goal for me this year as well. That was a big kind of moment for me just in terms of like, ‘OK. I’m actually not bad at this sport. I can go places.’ That was exciting.”

Going into her final season with the Huskies, Farmer had some highlights during the outdoor season. At the Track and Field Track on the Complex grounds, Farmer won gold in the women’s 200-metre at the Canada Summer Games Trials on June 12 and the Bob Adam’s Saskatchewan Track and Field Championships. She also captured a silver in the women’s 400-metre at the Summer Games Trials on June 11.

At the Canada Summer Games held in the Niagara Region of Ontario, Farmer helped Saskatchewan win a bronze medal in the women’s 4 X 100-metre relay on August 19.

Farmer wants to help the Huskies win a fifth Canada West team championship this season. 

Kendra Farmer helps coach with the Running Wild Athletics Club.

Once the U Sports season wraps up, she wants to keep competing in track and field and plans to continue to be a regular at the Track and Field Track.

“I don’t think I’m quite ready to give up on this sport yet,” said Farmer, who is a member of the Central Urban Metis Federation Incorporated. “I think I’ll definitely hang around for a little while.

“I love this community and just what track has done for me over the years and who it has all connected me with. I definitely want to keep going. I’ll for sure have another outdoor season after Huskies this year.

“I’m going to keep going kind of until I reach my limit. I know I’m not ready to go until I kind of reach that top point where I feel like I’ve gotten to the point where I can. I’d love obviously to make a national team at some point.”

Shock’s Jaman in softball for life

By Darren Steinke
Gordie Howe Sports Complex

Haley Jaman sets for an at bat for the Shock.

Haley Jaman expects to be a softball lifer because of the people she’s met in the game.

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.

Haley Jaman, right, explains a drill to some players.

“I started evaluating and doing stuff for Team Sask for winter programs and had coaches approach me asking if I would come run like little camps with their own team,” said Jaman, who has coached with JQFP Softball and the Saskatchewan North Central Softball Academy. “This winter I took a Hustlers team, and I kind of helped out a little bit – a B team.

“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.”

Haley Jaman patrols the outfield for the Shock.

Equina said he has been keeping his eye out for players that are coming up through Saskatoon’s minor softball system who he thinks might make good coaches. He thought Jaman would be great in that role as she brings a great positive energy when she interacts with others.

“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.

Haley Jaman demonstrates a diving catch drill as a coach.

“The girls we played with we didn’t want to go play on random teams,” said Jaman. “We made our own team with ‘Queens’ (Equina).

“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.”

Haley Jaman plans to be involved in softball for a long time.

After this season is complete, Jaman wants to keep playing for softball as long as she can at any type of level. When she feels like she can no longer play, Jaman plans to focus even more time and attention on coaching.

“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.”