As 13-year old Katie Goggins showed me the trophy display in her room, I noticed two things that indicated to me that I was not interviewing just another teenager. First of all, her bedroom was in immaculate condition with not one thing out of place. It would have been impossible for her to clean up like this with the short notice I gave her about coming over. Secondly, her national championship medal, which she agreed to wear for the photo, was hanging among a bunch of other “ordinary” medals from a single hook. It’s not often that one meets a “Canadian Champion” - let alone a “Canadian Champion” in a sport that is as popular as baseball. Nevertheless, when I found myself sitting across from Katie Goggins, I discovered a very down-to-earth young girl who seems unchanged by her tremendous accomplishment.

On Saturday, September 22, at the Toronto Sky Dome, Katie, a Grade 8 student at Pinecrest Public School, was declared the “Best In Canada” in the Hit-Run & Throw competition held for 12 and 13 year-old girls across the country.

The long road to the Sky Dome began in June when Katie won the Valley East title for the 4^th year in a row. She earned points for hitting for distance from a “tee” stand; running around the bases; and for throwing for distance and accuracy. She then travelled to Timmins for the Northern Ontario Championship, which she again won for the 4^th consecutive year. It was then on to the Provincials in Toronto on August 18, where for the previous three years, Katie finished in the runner-up spot. This year, however, she hit a ball 167 feet in the air; threw a baseball a distance of 166 feet; and ran the bases in under 13 seconds to finally take first place and the crown of Ontario Champion. The next and final step was the Nationals, which were held in Toronto’s Sky Dome on September 22. At 8:00 a.m., Katie and nine other competitors in her age category, stepped on the big field to begin the final road on their long journey. Katie pounded the ball further than she had ever hit it and recorded a distance of 228 feet - some 26 feet longer than her nearest competitor. She then threw the ball a distance of 182 feet - one of her longest throws ever. Then it was up to her speed. When she made it around the bases in under 13 seconds, it gave Katie her all-time highest point total at 630 and she was crowned “The Best In Canada”.

Today, all she wants to do is play volleyball with her school team - baseball will have to be put on the shelf until winter training begins again several months from now.

“It was a lot of fun this year at the Nationals,” recalled Katie. “We got to stay in the Sky Dome Hotel for two days and met a lot of really interesting people. We even saw some of the ball players walking around the hotel and got some autographs.”

Katie attributes her success to the fact that she loves to play the game of baseball. Her Travelling Team coach for the past four years, Dean Gelinas and his assistant coach Yvon Kilganon, have helped her develop her skill level to the point where she is one of the top peewee players in a league which has traditionally been dominated by boys. She plays pitcher and shortstop, but prefers pitching. This past summer she was a member of the Valley East Vipers Peewee club, which also included her sister Shelby (12) and her friend Tracy Richer (13). It was the first summer where she wasn’t the only girl on the team.