Construction continues at Norbrock Stadium (image credit - CFJC Today)

By Michael Reeve

TRU BASEBALL

Norbrock improvements force Wolfpack to miss home games

Apr 19, 2022 | 4:10 PM

KAMLOOPS — The TRU Wolfpack’s baseball season was supposed to start versus Fraser Valley at Norbrock stadium on April 2. The players, coaches and fans were ready to go for opening day — but their home field was not.

“I think if it would have affected anybody else it would have got done,” said Wolfpack coach Ray Chadwick. “We get kicked out in the fall because they were doing work. To do it, knowing that we are playing in April, it’s frustrating.”

The City of Kamloops is currently renovating Norbrock Stadium, but don’t agree that the upgrades are only for the West Coast League Kamloops NorthPaws’ inaugural campaign.

“There are some safety improvements that we need to make because the NorthPaws are coming, which are just going to make it safer for all user groups. A lot of the work we’re doing [now] though is long-overdue maintenance projects that need to be done at some point. There is never a good time of the year to shutdown a stadium for this length of time,” said Sean Smith, City of Kamloops Business Operations.

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The City hopes to complete the work by this weekend, in time to get the Wolfpack back home for a series versus Vancouver Island University.

“Unfortunately, the project and the construction that’s going on here this week is the kind of work that can’t be stopped and patched up and make the stadium playable and then restart next week,” said Smith.

But with the short season ticking away, players are missing chances to to showcase their skills in front of family and friends.

“(My parents) are still coming up to see me but they are pretty disappointed they don’t get to see me play baseball for one more chance,” said fifth-year senior Matthew Richards. “After these two weekends we’re on the road for the rest of the season, basically.”

“We had parents coming in for Easter, we had tons of parents flying in to see their kids — and we’re cancelled. It’s embarrassing for me to have to talk to the parents, to have to talk to the umpires, to have to talk to the other teams and say we can’t play,” added Chadwick.

Chadwick understands that work needs to be done to improve the field, but thinks communication from the City could have prevented the issues all together.

“If we would have known that we weren’t going to be in Norbrock then we could have fixed our budget where we would have gone and played elsewhere for the month of April. If we would have known before the week we we’re getting ready to play, something could have been done.”

The Wolfpack have a pair of games set for this weekend at home, but the question currently remains as to what home that will be, as construction continues at Norbrock.