Softball Yukon has lured another major championship to Whitehorse, and this time, local teams will be participating.

The Yukon capital will play host to the 2016 Senior Men’s and Women’s Canadian Slo-Pitch Championships next August, Softball Yukon executive director George Arcand announced at the organization’s annual meet and greet evening at the Westmark last night.

Yukon teams are slated to participate in both tournaments with a qualifying tournament taking place June 26 to 28 this year.

“Softball season is just around the corner, and I can’t think of a better way to kick it off than with the announcement of a national championship coming to Whitehorse,” Arcand said.

“We have heard from our membership for some time that they would like us to host an event that local teams are able to participate in, so we are very pleased that we are able to make that happen.”

The senior men’s championship will be held August 7 to 13, 2016, while the senior women’s championship will be held August 9 to 13, 2016 – with 20 teams expected to take part. All games will take place at the Pepsi Softball Centre.

A healthy number of Yukon teams are expected to compete for the host team duties, said Arcand, adding that having local player representation was key to Softball Yukon making their latest tournament bid.

“It’s huge for the city. It’s huge for the Yukon,” he said. “It’s exciting for us to fill up the stands and really make the park sing.”

Only the winning team from each qualifier will be guaranteed entry in the national championship. All other teams will be ranked by finish and will gain entry if the Yukon is allowed more than one squad.

However, the teams that win the qualifying tournament in June will also be eligible to attend the 2015 Sr. Men’s and Women’s Slo-Pitch Canadian Championships, which will be held in Dorchester, Ont., Aug. 9 to 15.

Qualifying teams will receive up to $40,000 in financial assistance from Softball Yukon in order to make the trip to Ontario.

Local players were delighted to hear the news last night.

“It’s pretty exciting,” said Matt Thomson of Jat’s Backyard Landscaping Diggers. “I’ve always wanted to do a big tournament and get the chance to play against top quality teams.

“To have a tournament like that here – to watch it is exciting enough, but to get the chance to play in it is a dream come true if you’re a small-town ball player.”

He expects a handful of teams to vie for the Yukon title in June. The same number is expected to compete for the women’s crown as well.

“I think it’s more exciting for us to have it here,” said April Williams, who played a women’s team dubbed Sink the Pink during Dustball last summer.

“Our team is always just in it for fun, so we’re just looking at it as an opportunity to get a higher level of play. We’re going to play to win, but we’re more looking for the practice.

“We’re just lucky up here because you don’t get these opportunities anywhere else. To me, it would be just a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

Registration for the qualifying tournament will close June 12.

Whitehorse’s Robb Andison is the chair of Softball Canada’s Canadian Championship committee.

He said local fans can expect to see some of the country’s best slo-pitch players on the diamonds in 2016.

“This is the cream of the crop for the country,” Andison said. “Ninety-five per cent of the national team will be participating on their respective provincial teams.

“All the big hitters are going to come up. Our parks aren’t going to hold these boys in – not at all.”

Last year’s championships were held in Fort McMurray, Alta., with two Ontario teams claiming victories.

The Home Run Sports Orioles won the men’s division, while the Home Run Sports Ladybirds took the women’s side.

That said, Andison expects the Yukon teams to hold their own at the national championship, though they would be hard-pressed to win the title.

Whitehorse has hosted the national slo-pitch championships – which sees pitchers lob the ball towards home plate – before, said Arcand.

The men’s championship was held here in 1984. The next year, the Yukon played host to the inaugural women’s championship, alongside the men’s event for the second straight season.

The women’s Canadian title was decided in the Yukon capital once again in 1989 – the last time the nationals were featured here.

The excitement will continue into 2017, when the International Softball Federation (ISF) Senior Men’s World Championship will be played here.

The event will mark the fourth ISF championship held in the Yukon since 2008.