2015 Brennan Luffman Memorial Scholarship Winner

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Brandon Hutt is this year’s recipient of the Brennan Luffman Memorial Scholarship.

Brennan Luffman was a former outfielder and left handed pitcher with Team Saskatchewan that competed at the Baseball Canada Cup in 2004 and 2005. Brennan also played with the Weyburn Beavers and the Moose Jaw Millers in the WMBL.  He was a highly inspirational player, leader and always well liked by his teammates. He is dearly missed by his family, friends, and teammates.

The Luffman Family is happy to announce that Brandon Hutt will receive the scholarship. Brandon played with the Regina A’s in 2015 and is currently playing college baseball at West Hills College.  Brandon was also coached by Brennan Luffman and his influence has inspired Brandon to take baseball to the next level. Brandon is honoured to receive this scholarship in Brennan’s name.

Larry Orth has been a volunteer in the Baseball Sask system for many years. He began in Watrous, SK while he was a teacher there and was also involved with Watrous Minor Ball. He has also served as an Umpire and has always made himself available whenever needed.

He was the Zone 5 Umpire Director from 1993 to 2000 which is one of the largest member Zones and he was in charge of all umpires in that particular Zone.

From there, starting in 2001, Orth was elected in as the Zone 5 Governor, which had him handle all baseball events in that Zone.

In 2002, he was also appointed to be the Senior Supervisor where he was in charge of arranging all Senior Zone and Provincial Championships.

Once Larry retired, he and his family moved to Saskatoon in 2004 and he immediately was named to be a Zone 6 Director while also remaining the Senior Supervisor. He is also a key member of the Saskatoon Umpire Mentoring Program and gives much of his time volunteering to help as many young umpires as he can.

In 2006, Orth has elected as the Vice-President of Baseball Sask where he served in that position for 2 years.

In 2008, Orth has elected as the President of Baseball Sask where he served in that position for 2 years and was then Past President and Playoff Chairman from 2010-2013. During this time as President, he also sat on the Baseball Canada and Western Canada Baseball Association Board of Governors. He was part of the Baseball Canada Strategic Planning Committee as well.

In 2012, Orth was appointed to be Co-Commissioner looking into any discipline required for our Membership. He has filled this position until this current season. However, he has given his notice that 2015 will be his final year serving on our Baseball Sask Board.

Baseball Sask has been very fortunate to have had such an outstanding volunteer such as Larry and we are truly grateful to have had him on our team for the past couple decades.

We will miss him as he now steps down from serving on the Baseball Sask Board and we wish him nothing but the best and thank him for all of his years as volunteer member and friend!

Baseball Canada handed out their Awards on Saturday, November 7 in Saskatoon.

Among their Awards Winners, we are proud to announce the following:

Lionel Ruhr Elite Coach Award – Greg Brons (Saskatoon)

Brons
– Brons is the Baseball Sask High Performance Director and has done some fantastic work in our HP Program, in particular in 2015. He lead us to a silver medal at the Baseball Canada Cup, silver at the Western Canada Summer Games and his fingerprints were all over the Sask athletes on the Prairies team that won the Tournament 12 Championship.

MLB – Baseball Canada Volunteer of the Year (Sask Recipient) – Larry Orth (Saskatoon)

Orth
– Orth has been involved as a volunteer with Baseball Sask for many years as an Umpire Director, Zone Director, Zone Governor, Senior Supervisor, Playoff Chairman, Vice-President, President, Past President and most recently as the Co-Commissioner.

Grass Roots Coach of the Year (Sask Recipient) – Matt Kosteniuk (Saskatoon)

Kosteniuk
– Kosteniuk has been Head Coach & Assistant Coach of the Saskatoon Diamondbacks Midget AAA baseball team for the past 5 years. He has worked tirelessly to develop baseball skills for the Diamondbacks as well as the Fall Ball baseball program, regularly making himself available for extra help for whoever is interested. His love of baseball and the pure enjoyment it brings to him to watch these players develop is inspirational.

The 2015 Baseball Sask season officially wrapped up on Saturday, November 7 with the Annual Awards Banquet that was held in conjunction with the Baseball Canada Awards Banquet in Saskatoon.

We are very pleased to announce the following Baseball Sask Award Winners:

Player of the Year – Carson Perkins (Bienfait)

Minor Player of the Year – Brody Alexandre (Swift Current)

Senior Team of the Year – Yorkton E & S Yankees

Minor Team of the Year – Assiniboia Midget Aces

Grass Roots Coach of the Year – Troy Casper (Regina)

Manager of the Year – Dale Berner (Assiniboia)

Joe McDonald Special Award of Merit – Rod Palaniuk

Builder of the Year – John Casavant (Melfort)

Patron of the Year – Subway® Franchisees of Saskatchewan

Senior Official of the Year – Bill Wyatt (Carlyle)

Lou Slotsve Junior Official of the Year – Ian Stewart (Oxbow)

Lifetime Achievement Award – Bob Burns (Estevan)

Congratulations to all award winners for such a successful season!

Congratulations to the Pee Wee Girls team who won the Bronze Medal at the 2015 Western Canada Baseball Championship held in Yorkton from August 21-23.

Team Sask defeated Team Manitoba in the Bronze medal game by a score of 18-4.