The Smitty's Terminators will host the U14 Canadian Girls Fast Pitch Jamboree in Winnipeg this week.

The National Championship, which will feature 19 teams, will be held at John Blumberg Softball Complex.

"It's a great opportunity I think for us twofold," stated manager Scott Neiles.  "By virtue of winning the provincials we would like to consider ourselves more than a host.  We are going in with the idea that we are going to be a very competitive team and hopefully do well in the tournament.  As well, we get to have our kids play in their own backyard against the best teams in Canada and they get a great opportunity of seeing their family and friends watch this."

Smitty's had a very strong season going 17-1 including an 8-0 record in provincials.  

Neiles explained the team went down to a few American tournaments where they went 8-3 and had a chance to play some older teams.

"I think they need to realize and have the mindset that they are as good as anybody.  They are strong defensively, offensively we have some great young pitching but if they are going to do something effective and have success at these tournaments they are going to require to have all 12 girls chip in.  This isn't a one man sport, we are not going to have one pitcher go out and dominate.  We have three or four pitchers we have a number of hitters, we got great defense and we are going to require all these girls to do well so we can have some success."

Teams from British Columbia all the way to Prince Edward Island will be competing for the prize.

Neiles shared what he expects from the competition.

"The competition is going to be very strong and as a result of being the host team we don't get the most favorable draw but our mindset is if we are going to have success we have to beat anybody and everybody.  We always want to have a great experience but I also know our girls are very competitive and they are going into this tournament with the mind set 'Why not us?'."

Smitty's will play round robin games against Palmerston and Prince Edward Island Selects on Wednesday and Halton Hawks and Saskatoon Hustlers on Thursday.

The U14 Canadian Girls Fast Pitch Jamboree runs from August 17th to 21st.