A young athlete from the Ottawa-Gatineau region is making sports history. Twenty-year-old Ela Day-Bédard has been drafted by San Francisco’s team in the brand-new Women’s Professional Baseball League (WPBL), the first professional women’s baseball league to launch in more than 80-years. “I was actually speechless,” Day- Bédard says. “I didn’t get the opportunity to go to the tryouts, so being called fairly high I was actually very speechless and excited to see my name come out.” Day-Bédard, who studies civil engineering at the University of Ottawa and plays softball with the Gee-Gees, is also a member of the Baseball Canada Women’s National Team. The infielder was the 41st player selected in the draft and was taken by San Francisco at the very top of the third round. For Day-Bédard, the accomplishment is the result of years of long travel days, training sessions and breaking barriers in a sport traditionally dominated by men. A lifelong love of the game Day-Bédard says she fell in love with baseball early in life. While she enjoyed playing sports as a child, Day-Bédard says she did want to join organized sports. One day, that changed. “I was at the cottage with my grandparents, and I threw a ball and my grandpa told my dad, ‘Oh, she has a good arm sign her up in baseball,’” she said. “So, they did, without my approval, and ever since I fell in love with the game.” She grew up playing catch in the backyard and jumped into boys’ league at every opportunity. By the time Day-Bédard was in her teens, she had cracked one of the highest levels of youth baseball in Quebec, competing in the province’s boy’s league, a rarity for female athletes. Balancing school, travel, and national-level play Opportunities for high-level women’s baseball in the region are limited, and Day-Bédard spent much of her teenage years, and early adulthood travelling across the country to train and compete. Her father, Robert Bédard says the dedication started early. “Being in women’s competitive, you do have to travel because it’s not concentrated,” he says. “The league is based in Trois-Rivières, so it’s 3.5 hours away. While Day-Bédard’s schedule required plenty of travel, Bédard says it led to many cherished memories. “But to be quite honest, being a young ballplayer myself, I’m kind of living my dream through Ella,” he adds. “There’s nothing we love more than packing, doing a road trip and sitting by the ball field all day long.” During the summer months, Day-Bédard often spent 24 to 30 hours a week travelling on her own to join women’s leagues and practices in other provinces. A milestone for women’s baseball With the WPBL preparing for its inaugural season, Day-Bédard says she has her eyes set on a new dream, one she didn’t think would be possible. “When I was younger, I always dreamed of making Team Canada. Pro League wasn’t really an option but now that there is one, it’s a dream come true,” she says. Her father shares that same dream. “We’ve seen a lot of growth in women’s sports. Baseball Quebec has done a wonderful job in developing girls from a young age, having a great development program right up to the women’s,” Bédard said. “We always hoped that there would be a professional league. We didn’t know if we’d see the day during Ela’s career, but we did, and she’s in her prime, so it couldn’t have worked out better.” The WPBL’s first season is expected to begin next year, with four teams across the United States (Boston, New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco). Day-Bédard was one of 20 Canadians selected in the inaugural draft.
