It's jamboree time at Legion Field

The Havre North Stars American Legion baseball club needs games right now. They need to continue gaining experience.

So the timing of the return of the North Star Jamboree couldn’t be better.

Today through Sunday, the North Stars will host five other American Legion clubs in a jamboree format, with every team playing at least four games over the weekend. The jamboree is back in Havre after a one-year hiatus, and Havre head coach Dan Wirtzberger couldn’t be more thrilled with having it back.

“It started back in October, the putting together this tournament,” Wirtzberger said. “We wanted to make sure we got some really good teams to come down here and we wanted to let them see what our program and this Northern District is all about. And I think we’ve got some really good teams in this tournament and it should be a lot of fun.”

And six good teams will indeed play in Havre, including the North Stars. But what will be interesting is how fierce the competition will be. Attending this year’s jamboree will be the Glasgow Reds and the Fort MacLeod Royals, as well as Alberta teams from Strathmore and Calgary, along with Swift Current, Sask.

The North Stars, who have only played two games in the last 14 days, both losses last Sunday to Medicine Hat, will open the tournament facing off against Strathmore tonight at 7:45. Havre will play back-to-back games on Saturday night, first at 7:45 p.m. against Swift Current followed by a game against Calgary. Havre’s final game of the tournament will come at 2:45 p.m. Sunday when the North Stars square off against the Reds. Glasgow is currently ranked as the No. 1 team in Class A Legion baseball, and the Reds were runners-up in the 2012 Class A state tournament last summer.

“All the teams we play are going to be pretty tough,” Wirtzberger said. “We don’t play Fort MacLeod, but we’ll get to scout them and we’ll see them pretty shortly. We know what a good team Glasgow is and we have played against Calgary. Strathmore is really solid and Swift Current right now is one of the top teams in Saskatchewan. So we’re going to face some really good competition. And all of the other games this weekend are going to be really fun to watch too.”

So of course, Havre will be up against good competition all weekend long, but that’s just what the North Stars need, especially with a tough stretch of district games upcoming.

Havre’s young pitching staff, led by Tyrell Pierce and Spencer Ross, need to continue to see tough hitters in order to find their groove, while Havre’s entire staff, including Jase Kato, Dane Warp, Gavin Gunderson, Deon Hammett and others, should see plenty of work on the mound this weekend as well.

Facing tough pitching will also be something the North Stars are up against this weekend. Stalwarts like Thurman Holdsclaw, David Denny, Ross and Pierce are all hitting pretty well early in the season, but up and down the North Star lineup, seeing quality pitching this weekend will certainly be a benefit.

"I'm hoping just to compete in the games,” Wirtzberger said. “I'm hoping everybody gets an ample amount of playing time. We're trying to get better for the next week, because then we start in pretty hard with conference games."

But while the North Stars, who have just one win on the season, will continue to build with four good non-conference games this weekend, and success is the goal, Wirtzberger is also excited to have a chance for Havre to showcase its Legion program this weekend. And with so much rain soaking Legion Field last week and into Monday, the work to host the jamboree didn’t stop until Thursday night.

“We worked pretty hard for five days to get the field ready, and it’s looking really nice right now,” Wirtzberger said. “We had the players do two days of work party and they did a great job. And we had a lot of great volunteers up there working really hard to get the field in the shape it’s in.

"The number one goal over the weekend is to show off our field and show off our community support,” he added. “We have the best field in the state, bar none, and that's a tribute to Mickey Williams and all the past parents of the Havre North Stars for putting all the work in."

This weekend’s North Star Jamboree gets under way today at 2:45 p.m at Legion Field. There are four total games scheduled for today, followed by six Saturday and four more Sunday. All games are set to be seven-inning contests. This weekend starts an overall eight-game home stand for the North Stars. Havre will be back at Legion Field June 12 for a pair of games against the Great Falls Hawks, and the North Stars also host Fort MacLeod in a doubleheader June 15.