On the weekend of June 20–22, the Cache Creek Chaos U13 Girls participated in the 24-team regional tournament in Sicamous. They were playing against some of the best competition in the B.C. Interior, with teams from the Okanagan, Kootenays, Shuswap, Cariboo, and Thompson-Nicola regions.
The Chaos started their tournament with a meeting against the Penticton Power. The two teams have met twice already this season, with each squad winning a game. As with the first two meetings, this one was also very close, and Cache Creek had to come from behind. It took a three-run triple from Rya Minnabarriet in the bottom of the 5th to complete a 14–13 comeback win in game number one of the weekend.
This was to be the only game of the day for the Chaos. Next the girls participated in the opening ceremonies for the tournament, where all the teams were welcomed. Cache Creek came to the opening ceremonies with all the team members wearing ribbon skirts in recognition of National Indigenous Peoples Day. It’s something the team takes a lot of pride in, and it’s the second year in a row they have worn the skirts at the regional opening ceremonies (the only team to do so).
Unfortunately, Mother Nature had a lot to say about the rest of the weekend. The skills competition was supposed to take place at 6 p.m. Friday, but due to wet weather the decision was made to cancel it. The heavy rain continued throughout the night and into Saturday morning, when the tournament committee made the difficult decision to cancel the last two sets of round robin games, making it a two-game round robin rather than three.
Saturday morning's 8 a.m. game against the Kelowna Heat was moved to noon, which gave the field crew time to try to get the fields back into shape. The infields looked like ponds, but were cleaned up in a couple of hours. In the second game, behind some strong pitching and hard hitting, the Chaos defeated Kelowna 19–8. The third game was to have been against Cranbrook, but was cancelled due to time restrictions.
The goal going into the tournament was to reach the Gold Division, and to do this the Chaos had to finish in the top eight of the 24 teams. The girls did just that, as with their two wins, zero losses, and run differential they finished as the seventh seed, setting up a match with the number two-seeded Quesnel Chaos.
Both Chaos teams played hard, but in the end the team from Quesnel came out victorious by a score of 13–10. The loss ended the tournament for Cache Creek, but they did finish a very respectable seventh place overall.
After the loss, weather continued to play a major factor on Sunday, as a severe thunderstorm arrived. Another difficult decision was made by the tournament committee, and they cancelled the day's remaining games, with the final winners decided based on score differentials placement.
Despite the ups and downs of the weekend’s weather, the girls played their hearts out and displayed some amazing team spirit all weekend on and off the field.
Sadly, this brings an end to the season for the Chaos, but it was an amazing one. Their record this season with tournaments, league games, and exhibition games was 18 wins, nine losses, and one tie.
More important than the wins and losses was how this team improved from the first game of the year to the last one. Second-year U13 players showed great leadership, while first-year players showed so much improvement. For eight of these players this was the last U13 competition they will see, as they move up to U15 next season. For the seven first-year U13 players, the experience they gained this year will be valuable going into next season.
This group of girls — which always had the best and loudest cheers from the dugout — is a tight one, but they wouldn't have had the success they did without their dedicated and organized manager, Shauna Laskey, and the guidance of a fantastic group of coaches. Coaches Ashlene Minnabarriet, Brendan Minnabarriet, Pamela Krause, Ryan Minnabarriet, Derek Nelson, and Kris Billy showed these girls how to play hard, play fair, and work hard on and off the field throughout the season, and how to do it with a great attitude.
Great coaches make great players, but also teach great life lessons about being on a team, and learning how to work in a group and as a team: how to support each other at all times, during the good times and rough patches, and most of all how to have fun while doing it. See you all back on the field in April 2026.
