While the upcoming BC Summer Games in Surrey, B.C. will be special for a lot of athletes and coaches, it will be more so for Shane and Evan Gorman.
The father and son will coach and play for the Kootenays in baseball respectively – Evan has experience playing in the infield, outfield and on the mound and expects to be playing pitcher and shortstop in the summer games.
“My dad makes me try harder because he’s always a little bit harder on me than any other coach,” explains Evan when asked about the influence of his father.
As for Shane, he originally wasn’t expecting to coach the team and if it weren’t for his son giving the OK, wouldn’t have taken part.
“I got a call from the Cranbrook Summer Games committee. They were short of coaching in the baseball department, so they looked up my coaching accreditations and asked me if I’d coach,” Shane remembers. “The first thing I did was ask Evan if that was alright, because he had been chosen to play a few days prior, and I was just going to go down as a spectator and a parent. It’s his experience, I did all my baseball, and he said it was fine and it’s great.”
Shane has coached Evan in hockey but will be dealing with batting, the outfield and some managerial duties at the summer games and doesn’t foresee a situation where he crosses the line as father and coach.
“In baseball, it’s more of a team sport, where it’s just positional and strategy. My expectations of him are to give it his all and have fun,” the elder Gorman says. “Don’t worry about what I think.”
“If I notice that he’s taking or crowding the plate or seems uncomfortable because of something, I’ll mention it to him. The way he hits and plays is beyond me now. As far as improving him, I think that he’s at that level now where, if for pitching and hitting, it’s going to take someone that played a lot further than I did to correct things,” Shane went on to say.
Evan doesn’t mind though, if his father gives him some tips about how to bat during the 2012 BC Summer Games.
“He was a good hitter when he was a kid so he’s going to probably correct my stance and technical things,” Evan goes on to say.
The Gormans aren't the only people from Grand Forks on the team, as local Noah Makortoff is on the team as well.