16 year old Ayden Makarus calls the Canada Summer Games in Winnipeg the experience of his lifetime.

The fact that the Airdrie athlete came home from the games sporting a bronze medal around his neck might have had something to do with that, but Makarus says the experience of representing Airdrie and Alberta was unforgettable.

"It was the thrill of a lifetime there. All of the volunteers there were really helpful to make sure that we got everything that we needed for us to be mentally and physically ready for all of our games. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity that we had there. It's something that you'll never forget, that's for sure."

Makarus' family were at the games with him to cheer him on which he calls awesome.  

"They said they really loved watching me play and it was really nice having them there to support me through that process and just watch some baseball."

Team Alberta's bronze medal game was a 5 - 1 win over Team Ontario.  The day before the team lost a heart breaker to Manitoba by a 1 - 0 score.  Makarus says it was a tough loss, but that's baseball.

"They have a lot of good ball players on that team and the fact that they had only given up about nine runs the whole tournament and we only let one in on them, it was okay but we weren't ready to hit the pitcher that they had throwing against us.  It is heartbreaking to lose that one that we should have won but we just couldn't execute with runners in scoring position when we needed and that cost us the game."

The bronze medal game was a different story.  

"It went really well. We executed a lot better with runners in scoring position and we had more chances. We came a lot more ready to play than we did the previous day."

Makarus plays for the Okotoks U18 Junior Dawgs baseball academy. The strength of that program was shown at the Canada Games with 14 Dawgs taking part on various provincial teams.  

"Three of them were on the Sask team that won the gold and one was on the Manitoba team that placed silver."

Choosing the players for Team Alberta was a year long process but the team only had three days together before the games started.  

Makarus says for the future he's focusing on the next season but he's also looking further down the road.  

"In the long run I want to head down to the States and get a scholarship and see where that takes me. I want to try and take this as far as I can." 

 

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