The Innisfail Merchants are off to one of their best starts in their six-year history thanks to a bit of two-way help.
A gifted ball player is travelling far to contribute to the team, while the squad has enthusiastically given him a helping hand as well.
Kole Waye, 20, a pitcher and outfielder from Fort McMurray, was evacuated from the oilsands community when the wildfire struck on May 3. But the Merchants, who last week sported a perfect 4-0 record in the six-team Alberta AAA Baseball League, came to the rescue.
Waye, an apprentice electrician who lived with his family in the Wood Buffalo area of Fort McMurray, awoke late in the morning of May 3 and encountered a sky that was black with smoke. He called his parents at work and asked what he should do.
“They said just get the dog, some dog food, go to the school and get your brother and get out of there,” said Waye, whose family headed south on Highway 63. “It was crazy. All four lanes were southbound and every lane was just jammed packed. When we were coming through town there were fires on both sides of the road. We drove past the gas station that blew up. It was just a scary site and it was still on fire.”
The family made it safely to Fort Saskatchewan and will be residing there for a few weeks until they are ready to go back to their home, which escaped major damage from the wildfire.
In the meantime, his ball career will continue, thanks to the Innisfail Merchants, who first asked him to play last year for the western Canadian championships that were held in town. Wayne has been practising since May 3 with displaced Fort McMurray players in Fort Saskatchewan during the week, while on weekends he's driving to wherever the Innisfail Merchants are playing, whether it's Edmonton or Innisfail, or elsewhere.
“The team has been awesome. When I left the house I didn't have time to grab ball gear or anything,” said Waye, who earlier this month in Edmonton pitched four excellent innings, giving up only two runs and helping the team win the game 10-2.
“The Innisfail Merchants gave me a gift card to go buy whole new baseball stuff just so I could come and play with them. The coaches have been awesome. The players all know me. It has been surreal, really.”
In the meantime, the Merchants, whose roster is comprised of players from the ages of 18 to 21, are happy to have Waye contribute to the club, which last year finished last in what was then just a three-team league.
“He's a great kid and when this all came about we reached out to him to see where he was at as he had lost all his ball equipment,” said Desmond Bouteiller, general manager of the Merchants, noting the Fort McMurray native was already on the team's radar. “We had talked to him. He was going to try and make some of the games but with the travel it was going to be a little bit tough.
“But now that he is here, I think it has given him a bit of normalcy back to his life by having baseball,” added Bouteiller.
Kole Waye
"The team has been awesome. When I left the house I didn't have time to grab ball gear or anything. The Innisfail Merchants gave me a gift card to go buy whole new baseball stuff just so I could come and play with them."
