‘Team of Destiny’: Ottawa West Twins overcome 4-0 & 6-0 deficits to win district, Ontario championships

By Keiran Gorsky

The Ottawa West Twins had their backs to the wall. Three innings into the Little League Ontario majors provincial final in Timmins, they were already down 6-0 to the Ancaster Diamondbacks. It wouldn’t be the first mountain they had to climb.

Pitted against perennial rivals East Nepean in the district finals, the Twins fought back from 4-0 down to secure their place up north. After sweeping the round robin, it took them five innings to mount a comeback from 2-0 down in their semi-final against the Windsor South Blue Bombers.

Down but not out, assistant coach Geoff Nolan recounted, the under-13 team refused to let their spirits slide. It might be fair to say their young lives were leading up to these increasingly climactic trials of camaraderie.

Almost every player on the team came up through the youth ranks at the club – almost everyone had hit their first ball wearing maroon and white off a tee at age four. All of them had waited until May for the weather to let them on the diamond and all of them had been driven eight hours north by their parents just to be here.

The coaching staff couldn’t soothe every trepidation but they didn’t have to. For every setback, someone seemed poised to step up and cheer their lungs out from the dugout. When the Twins bounced back with five runs in the third and added two more in the fifth to complete the 7-6 comeback, Nolan wasn’t surprised.

“These kids have been through these situations so many times now that they were really able to keep their cool,” said Nolan, who calls the Nationals-bound Twins a ‘Team of Destiny.’

Preparations for the tournament began in the winter, long before the team could venture outside. Twice a week from January until May, players practiced their hitting at Monarch Cricket and their fielding at Bell Sensplex.

“Really, all the hard work’s been done in the offseason,” Nolan explained. “Now it’s [about] putting those skills to use in games.”

The months of prep work had the team firing on all cylinders. Every player on the Twins recorded at least one hit, an RBI and two runs through provincials while the pitching crew boasted a remarkable 1.07 ERA.

Off the diamond, the kids had plenty of opportunities for indoor and outdoor fun. Players went fishing, enjoyed impromptu parking lot barbecues and played sprawling games of manhunt through the hotel halls. Swimming was reserved for postgames only.

“We don’t swim before the games, but after the games, they were able to do that,” Nolan mentioned.

The result booked the Major Twins’ spot at Canadian Little League Championships for the first time since 2023. The Twins are off to a 2-0 start to the competition in Glace Bay, NS, with wins over Trois-Rivières (Team Quebec) and Sydney Mines (Team Atlantic).

Preparations for the trip to Nova Scotia began immediately following their Ontario triumph. Little League Canada quickly arranged their Sunday morning flight out east. A member of the coaching staff traded text messages with local apparel shop Irving Rivers, who whipped up a batch of Ontario shirts in less than 24 hours.

Winning the national tournament would grant Ottawa West their first-ever berth at the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. It’s hard for Nolan not to get a little giddy himself.

“I’m so excited, I feel like a little kid right now,” laughed Nolan, who will be heading to a national tournament for his second time alongside head coach Fern Lefebvre. “When you get a little bit older, you realize that this is not an easy feat.”

Nolan, who has been coaching this cohort for some eight years, finds himself full of immense pride. To watch this group, his son Jamie among them, develop an unflappable maturity and a true passion for the sport has been a great pleasure.

“This is a type of memory that will last a lifetime,” he underlined. “You know, 20 years from now, they may not remember the scores in the games, but they’re going to remember the experience of representing Ontario and making friends with other provinces.”