The preparation for 13 nations is officially over.

After training camps, practices and exhibition games, the 2018 Junior Men’s Softball World Championship officially begins Saturday with a full slate of games at the Max Power Ball Parks.

As the tournament hosts, Canada will be waiting until primetime for their first matchup, as they’ll take on the United States at 7:30 p.m. at Rotary Field.

“We’re telling our guys to approach everything the same way that they have so far,” Canada coach Jeff Ellsworth said. “We don’t want them to get caught up in the hype and let the moment overtake them.

“If they do what they’ve done to get this point and just enjoy the experience, we should be successful.”

The team that everyone is chasing is Japan, who captured the 2016 championship with a 2-1 win over New Zealand in Midland, Mich.

They will be starting their title defence on the Kinsmen Field at 7:30 p.m. against Argentina, who won back-to-back titles in 2012 and 2014.

“We have a strong group here and we don’t feel like there’s any extra pressure for us,” Japan coach Yukihiro Tanaka said. “We’re just looking to play our very best.”

It’s just not the coaches that are giving advice ahead of the tournament, as the veteran players are letting the youngsters know what to expect after previously competing at the World Championships.

“We’re making sure that they are ready to play and not feeling nervous,” Argentina infielder Alejo Muñoz said. “We’re sharing with them that feeling of pleasure that they’ll get from representing their country.”

“I just want my teammates to enjoy the experience,” South Africa shortstop Reece Nyland said. “It’s not very often that we play on fields as nice as these ones, so I hope they make the most of this opportunity.”

The tournament will also serve as a chance for some of the sport’s developing nations to go up against the top international sides.

“The best way to learn is to go up against the best in the world and see what they do,” Denmark head coach Gilles Fournier said.

“As we say in Denmark for those that play soccer, the ball is round for everyone, so we’ll see what happens.”

This year’s tournament marks the seventh time that Canada has hosted the event, but this is the first time that it’s ever been held in Saskatchewan.

“We’ve seen big crowds in Saskatoon for the Men’s World Championship a couple of years ago, so I expect to see the same fantastic atmosphere here in Prince Albert,” Australia coach Robert Harrow said.

Round-robin action will begin Saturday at 10 a.m. with Mexico playing Denmark at Rotary Field and the Czech Republic taking on Guatemala at Kinsmen Field at 11:30 a.m.

New Zealand will face Hong Kong at 12:30 p.m. on the Rotary Field Diamond, while South Africa will match up with Denmark at 2 p.m. on the Kinsmen Field Diamond.

Australia will go up against India at 3 p.m. at Rotary Field.

The opening ceremonies will take place at 6 p.m. on Rotary Field ahead of the marquee matchup between Canada and the United States.

Local racer Shantel Kalika is about to make the leap into Canada’s top racing series.

A regular competitor in the Sportsman division at the Wyant Group Raceway in Saskatoon, Kalika will be making her debut in the NASCAR Pinty’s Series at her home track on Wednesday, July 25 during the Bayer Velocity Prairie Thunder Twin 125’s.

“It’s something that came together here over the last few months,” Kalika said. “We went down to the NASCAR Monster Energy Cup Series race in Bristol, Tenn. in March to meet some contacts down there and that eventually led to our team purchasing a car.

“Our family has been involved in the Pinty’s Series for awhile now as my dad (Ben Busch) and I have crewed and spotted for teams over the last few years. Now we’re taking the plunge into racing with them and we’re really excited about it.”

The NASCAR Pinty’s Series travels across Canada and has one race in New Hampshire during its 13-race schedule.

Defending champion Alex Labbé now competes regularly in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, while D.J. Kennington has made a handful of starts in the NASCAR Monster Energy Cup Series this year.

“The amount of horsepower in these cars is the biggest difference from what I usually drive,” Kalika said. “There’s about 560 horsepower in a Pinty’s Series car compared to 380 in the sportsman class, so that changes things quite a bit with how the car goes around the track.”

What will be unique about Kalika’s series debut is that the event in Saskatoon will feature a pair of 125 lap races.

“You have to make sure that you pace yourself, which is something that I noticed last year with how the teams approached the two races,” Kalika said. “The drivers that are running full time are racing for the points championship, so they’ll be patient and trying not to damage their car before the next race.

“It’s tight racing and everything happens in a blink of an eye out there, so you need to have a little bit of luck on your side as well.”

Kalika and her number 43 Ag Growth International Dodge will then race in a second NASCAR Pinty’s Series event on Saturday, July 28 in the Luxxur 300 at the Edmonton International Raceway.

“You might as well go big or go home right,” Kalika joked. “The series does a Western Swing each year in Saskatoon and Edmonton, so it made sense for us to be a part of both events as it’s not far for us to travel to, along with our fans, family and friends.

“We’d love to run the full series, but it takes a lot of money and it would mean that I would probably have to take off the summer off work.”

A track champion in the Pro Truck division two years ago, the Prince Albert product currently leads the Sportsman division standings at Wyant Group Raceway with two wins in three races.

“We’re also running a Sportsman race the night before the Pinty’s race in Saskatoon, so it’s going to be a pretty busy week with a lot of time behind the wheel and little sleep,” Kalika joked.

“We have a couple of different goals for the races. If we can come away with a top 15 or a top 10 finish, that would be amazing for us as we move up to this level of racing. With that said, if we can finish both events, keep things clean and earn the respect of the other racers, that would be a success.”

When it comes to starting off a major event, it doesn’t get much bigger than this.

Following the opening ceremonies for the 2018 Junior Men’s World Softball Championship Saturday evening at Rotary Field, which will get underway at 6 p.m., Canada and the United States will square off at 7:30 p.m. in their first game of Group B round-robin play.

“It’s something we’ve been talking about for a long time,” Canada centre fielder Jordan Pomeroy said. “Just the thought of having the opening ceremonies, being the host team for the tournament and then playing the United States is very exciting.”

“These events are why we play the game,” United States coach Ty McKinney said. “To go up against one of the top teams right off the bat…we wouldn’t have it any other way.”

Both sides wrapped up their exhibition slates Thursday, as Canada split a doubleheader with Japan in Shellbrook and the United States picked up a victory over Denmark at Optimist Field.

“We feel like we’re ready to go,” United States infielder Jeff Lewis said. “We got hit in the mouth a bit in our first game here against Japan Wednesday, so it was nice to see the guys fight back a bit ahead of that big game against Canada Saturday.”

“It’s been a long road for us with all of the training camps and the games we’ve had around Saskatchewan, but now it’s starting to feel a bit surreal with everything about to begin,” Pomeroy added.

Having won the tournament once in 1993 in Auckland, New Zealand, Canada is looking to build off of their bronze medal showing at the last World Championship in Midland, Mich.

“Our team has a good all-around balance with great hitting, pitching and defence,” Canada coach Jeff Ellsworth said. “They’re like brothers and the chemistry they have is huge.

“I’m friends with (head coach) Gerard Gallant of the Vegas Golden Knights and one of the things he told me that stood out about their group was how they always came to the rink ready to play for one another. Our team is exactly like that.”

Meanwhile, the Americans are looking to reach the podium for the first time since 1985, when they won a silver medal in Fargo, N.D.

“We’re a scrappy team that does the little things well,” Lewis said. “We don’t have a star player that can take over a game, but we’re a pretty solid group from top to bottom.”

New Zealand, who is the top overall seed and the reigning silver medalists, are also in Group B along with the Czech Republic, Guatemala and Hong Kong.

Group A features the defending champions Japan, Argentina, Australia, Mexico, Denmark, South Africa and India.

Round-robin action will begin Saturday at 10 a.m. with Mexico playing Denmark at Rotary Field and the Czech Republic taking on Guatemala at Kinsmen Field at 11:30 a.m.

New Zealand will face Hong Kong at 12:30 p.m. on the Rotary Field Diamond, while South Africa will match up with Denmark at 2 p.m. on the Kinsmen Field Diamond.

Australia will go up against India at 3 p.m. at Rotary Field and Japan will open up their title defence at 7:30 p.m. against Argentina at Kinsmen Field.

Canada will return to action Sunday evening against the Czech Republic and will then face off with Guatemala Monday night.

Both of those games will take place at Rotary Field and will get underway at 8 p.m.

They may be entering this week with the number one overall ranking in the 13-team field at the 2018 Junior Men’s Softball World Championship.

However, the reigning silver medalists from New Zealand aren’t paying much attention to where they are seeded ahead of their opening game in Group B Saturday at 12:30 p.m. against Hong Kong at Rotary Field.

“In our eyes, we still have a lot of work to do, so we’ll see how things shake out for us,” coach Thomas Makea said. “I think a lot of that ranking has to do with our men’s team being the reigning world champions, but that gives our guys something they can strive towards as they go forward in the sport.

“If you look at this field, you have Canada, Australia, the United States, Argentina and Japan that have legitimate shots of winning. In order to be the champions you need to be playing your best on any given day.”

New Zealand lived up to their top ranking in a tune-up game Wednesday afternoon at Optimist Field as held South Africa without a hit in a convincing 13-0 win.

“Our biggest thing at the moment is getting ourselves ready to go for the round-robin games, which is something we focused on during a 10-day stay in Toronto before we came to Prince Albert this week,” centre fielder Andre Hart said.

“Many of us are going to be making our international debut at this tournament and it’s going to be an exciting moment for us.”

Three players from the 2016 team that lost 2-1 to Japan in the final in Midland, Mich. are with this year’s squad in Prince Albert as they look to finish one spot higher on the podium.

“Reilly Makea, Kaleb Rona and Harrison Valk were all there two years ago and we’re looking to those guys to lead the way for our younger boys,” coach Thomas Makea said.

“The biggest thing they’ve been telling us is to make sure that we are playing our game,” Hart added. “They’ve really been stressing on the fact that we need to be ourselves and do the things that got us to this point.”

New Zealand’s marquee round-robin matchups will be Sunday at 5:30 p.m. against the United States and Monday at 8 p.m. against Canada.

Both of those games will be held at Rotary Field.

“It’s a short tournament so we’re really going to be focusing on our mental health and our physical fitness,” Hart said. “Being able to recover from games is going to be huge in order to have a good showing.”

After winning two straight titles in 1985 and 1989, New Zealand have finished as the tournament runner-up on four occasions.

In addition to their loss to Japan two years ago, they also lost 9-0 to Argentina at the 2014 tournament in Whitehorse, Yukon.

It’s a moment that Ryan Smith can’t wait to experience.

The first baseman from Shellbrook will get the chance to play for Canada and have a home field advantage this week as they serve as the host squad for the 2018 Junior Men’s Softball World Championship in Prince Albert.

“It’s going to be pretty special to wear that maple leaf and play so close to home,” Smith said following a youth clinic put on by the team Thursday.

“It’s been pretty well advertised online and through my club team (the Shellbrook Rangers) so I’m expecting to see a lot of family and friends at the diamond all week.”

After being announced as a member of the Canadian national team following their training camp in Prince Edward Island last summer, Smith has been keeping busy along with the rest of the squad in preparation for the tournament.

“I’ve flown out to Ontario a couple of times to meet up with the team, then we’ve been in Saskatoon for about a week and a half for our training sessions and then around the province for our tune-up games,” Smith said.

“The chemistry that we have as a group is unbelievable. We all have the same common goal of winning the gold medal on home soil.”

That close-knit bond is something that Smith feels will be a key to the team’s success, especially with the infield unit that he’s a part of.

“I think our group is strong all the way around the diamond,” Smith said.

“We’re super smooth when it comes to fielding and I don’t think we have a real down side of our game anywhere.”

After playing the defending champions Japan Thursday night in Shellbrook in their final exhibition game, Canada will open up their tournament schedule Saturday on the Rotary Field at 7:30 p.m. against the United States.

“I think that’s the perfect team to play right after the opening ceremonies,” Smith said.

“Everyone’s going to be excited for that game and I think that atmosphere is going to be fantastic with that cross border rivalry to start the tournament off.”

Having won a bronze medal two years ago in Midland, Mich., Canada is attempting to win their second world championship and their first since the 1993 tournament in Auckland, New Zealand.

“One of the things we’re really focusing on in a short tournament like this is reacting positively to any mistakes that might happen out there,” Smith said.

“Mistakes are going to happen in this sport, but it’s how we bounce back and move forward that will determine if we end up being the best team on the diamond.”

In order to be the hosts for the 2018 Junior Men’s Softball World Championship, a number of upgrades had to be made around the Max Power Ball Parks.

That’s where Project Triple Play came together back in 2014 as a major fundraising initiative to help host events like the one that starts here on Saturday.

“It originally started then to help get things in motion for the 2015 U16 boys nationals championship,” Project Triple Play Chair Ian Litzenberger said. “When we put together our bid to bring forward to Softball Canada for the Worlds, we couldn’t host the event with how things were set up unless we did $1.55 million worth of expansion.

“We’ve expanded the field dimensions by 250 feet, both main diamonds for the tournament are now fully lit and they have extra seating and press boxes to go long with that. The best thing though is that we are leaving a 30-year legacy for the youth in Prince Albert and for any other big events we want to host in the future.”

The finishing touches on the project are going right now at the diamonds, as the host committee recognized the Northern Lights Casino and SIGA for their contributions to the final phase of Project Triple Play, which has raised close to $1.6 million.

“They’ve been involved right from the start of the project and we wanted to give thanks to them for that,” said Litzenberger, who is also the director of sponsorship for the World Championship.

“It’s a huge event for our community that will generate new dollars and employment opportunities over a short period of time,” Northern Lights Casino general manager Richard Ahenakew said.

“The impact this is going to leave and the memories people are going to have from this event will be huge, and it was easy to help be involved in making this a success.”

The next major goal for the host committee is to make sure that fans come out to the ballpark for the tournament.

“When we went about setting our budgets three years ago, we felt like if we could get around 2,000 to 3,000 fans through the gates during the week, it would be a successful tournament,” Litzenberger said.

“As of Tuesday, we’ve sold 1,300 tournament passes. With the walk-ups sales still to come, I think we’re in a good place right now.”

Prince Albert native Braden Schneider will soon be back on the ice for a chance to represent his country.

Earlier this week, the Brandon Wheat Kings defenceman was one of 44 players named to take part in Canada’s Under-18 Men’s Team summer selection camp in Calgary from July 28 to Aug. 1.

That camp will determine which players will make up Canada’s roster for the Hlinka Gretzky Cup, which will be held in Edmonton and Red Deer, Alta. from Aug. 6-11.

Schneider, 16, had 22 points in 66 regular season games for the Wheat Kings and had six assists in 11 playoff games during his rookie campaign in the Western Hockey League.

He also suited up for Canada White at the World Under-17 Hockey Challenge last season and had two points in six games.

Previously known as the Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament, this year’s event marks the first time that it has been held outside the Czech Republic since 1996, when it was held in Castlegar and Nelson, B.C.

Canada has won the tournament 21 times and are the defending champions.

With Sergei Sapego already on the roster, the Prince Albert Raiders have selected a fellow Belarusian to potentially be his teammate next season.

On Thursday morning, the Raiders selected 17-year-old forward Aliaksei Protas with the 26th overall selection during the Canadian Hockey League’s import draft.

“He’s a big long centreman that can play on the right wing and shoots from the left-hand side,” Raiders general manager Curtis Hunt said. “He’s got real nice skill and good vision.”

Protas, who stands 6’3″ and weighs 178 pounds, had 29 points in 49 games for the Belarus Under-17 program this past season.

The 2019 NHL Draft eligible forward also had four points in five games for his country at the 2018 World Under-18 Championship.

“He’s played on all of their elite teams, including the Belarus team that was at the Mac’s Midget Tournament in Calgary over Christmas, which is where we got a chance to watch him,” Hunt said.

“Obviously it takes some time for European players to adjust to our league, but I expect him to contribute to our offence. With how big he is and how he plays, we expect him to play a big role in the penalty kill as well.”

While it wasn’t a major factor in the selection, Hunt says it’s an added bonus to have two players from the same country potentially be part of the roster next year.

“It’s a nice addition in the fact that we can put both Aliaksei and Sergei in the same school together, plus we have ‘Krivo’ (forward Nikita Krivokrasov) here as well to help them out,” Hunt said.

The Quebec Major Junior Hockey League’s Saint John Sea Dogs held the first overall pick in Thursday’s draft and selected 2001-born Slovakian forward Maxim Cajkovic, who is a possible top ten pick at next year’s NHL Draft.

With the second overall selection, the Edmonton Oil Kings nabbed Belarusian forward Vladimir Alistrov, who had seven points at the World Under 18’s as a teammate of Protas.

Meanwhile, the Sudbury Wolves of the Ontario Hockey League made a big splash with the third overall pick as they drafted Finnish goaltender and Buffalo Sabres prospect Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen.

The CHL had announced Wednesday that teams could draft goaltenders for the first time since 2013.

“I thought there might be a few more goaltenders taken before we picked,” Hunt said.

“There were a couple of surprises early on but as I look at our list and the picks that have happened in the first round, most of the guys that we had interest in are already gone.”