HAVRE — They’ve hosted district and state tournaments, but this is the first time that the Northwest regional tournament will be making its way over to Havre.
American Legion Park will play host to a number of teams as they all compete in what is considered the “end all be all” from the Class A division. Havre Youth Baseball president Brian Jenkins is excited about bringing the tournament to Havre and says this opportunity is a statement of what the coaching staff, the team, and the generations before have done to this point.
Hosting the tournament is not only good for the baseball world in Havre, but it’s good for the community itself with all the visiting teams and families coming in to support local business.
“It’s an economic boost for sure,” said head coach Patch Wirtzberger. “Restaurants full, hotels full, people running around town hopefully shopping a little bit. Our program is supported by those businesses so it’s good to be able to bring teams and other people to the community to boost the economy a little bit.”
But the community is not seeing this as a one-way transaction, as many people have stepped in to help put on a successful tournament. Jenkins explained that hosting the tournament cost the organization money out of their own pockets, but after reaching out to the community for help they have gotten sponsorships and are still looking for a few more.
As for the Havre Northstars, they have been on a tear all season long and finished the regular season with the highest conference win percentage in all of Class A, finishing with a record of 25-3. As a reward for hosting the tournament, they receive an automatic bid to play in it, but they’d rather earn their way in. They will go through district and state tournaments hoping to prove why they deserve to be apart of that regional tournament.
The regional tournament will take place at American Legion Park Aug. 4-8.
