After a 10 year absence, the Western Canadian Masters Fast-pitch Championships will be hosted in Whitehorse in August 2006.

With the popularity of slo-pitch on a rise for the past several years all across Canada, fastpitch hasn't even been played in Whitehorse at a competitive level for years Dawson has been the only fastpitch game in town and the Yukon hasn't sent a rep fastpitch team Outside in just as long.

Softball Yukon president George Arcand said the executive decided it was time to bring both the game and the championships back to the territory.

'It's always been there,' said Arcand. 'We have a large number of people in that Masters group that have played it for years and we always have guys asking when it's going to come back.

'This opportunity came up, so we said sure, let's do it.'

Arcand said there's also always been a large following in the Yukon as far as spectators of fast-pitch, and he expects to get huge support for the championships once again.

Softball Yukon will need the next year to get everything ready for the event, with re-basing of the Takhini Softball Complex on tap since bases for fast-pitch are shorter than the ones currently used at the complex for slo-pitch. The new pins will hopefully be put in this summer.

Organizers will also have to put an inner fence in for the championships, since the parks are too big for fast-pitch. They already have fences from before but they will need to undergo repairs.

The Yukon is hoping to field three teams in both the men's and women's categories, as long as they can find enough people to pitch. A lot of people who are interested in competing in 2006 that haven't played in some time will probably play slo-pitch this summer to get back in game shape, he said.

'Just getting their arms and legs into shape to throw and run and swinging the bat again. It's a lot different of a swing than golf. Lots of people that have played ball for a good number of years are avid golfers.'

Softball Yukon will also be working with provinces and territories over the next year to identify Outside teams that may be interested in attending the championships.

'We haven't been sending teams to championships for a number of years and sometimes what happens is then other people are hesitant to come here because of that,' Arcand explained. 'We're hoping we can overcome that.'

Arcand expects anywhere from 10 to 15 teams from outside the Yukon to attend the event, and stay in the territory at least four or five days.

'We're looking at about 200 people probably, so that certainly has an impact on the economy. Not as big of an impact as Dustball, but still an impact.

'For us, we want them to go home having had a great experience at the complex, but of course we also want them to plan more trips to the Yukon.'

A specific date hasn't been set yet for the 2006 Westerns, but Arcand wants to hold them as early in August as possible, most likely on the long weekend so people can travel home on the Monday and they won't miss work.

While Softball Yukon will be busy planning for the 2006 event, they may have another item to add to their plate come this fall. They've asked Slo-Pitch National (SPN) to host a championship in 2007, which would mean two championships in two years.

'(The 2007 event) is about 90 per cent in the bag as far as I've been told,' said Arcand. 'We've held SPN events before so we have a good track record.'

The Yukon executive will find out what championship they can host at a SPN meeting in October.