[Winnepeg, Manitoba, Canada] – Rob Giesbrecht of Landmark has been named to the national men’s softball team, which will compete in the 2009 ISF Senior Men’s World Championship set for July 17-26 in Saskatoon.
Giesbrecht, an honoured member of the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame, has been a national senior men’s team player since 2003 but this will be his first time challenging for a world title since he helped Canada’s national junior men’s softball team win a world championship in 1993.
“This is unbelievable, this is the highest level we can play because we’re not in the Olympics and this is the biggest even for men’s softball so to be on this team means a lot to me,” said Giesbrecht, 34, a teacher at Landmark Collegiate.
Canada’s senior men competed in the 2004 world championship but Giesbrecht was unable to participate due to his teaching commitment. In 2003, he helped Canada win a gold medal in men’s softball at the Pan Am Games in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, and in 2007 he was on the the Canadian team that won silver at the Pan Am Championships in Mexico.
“It’s always been on my mind to go for this ultimate goal and now I have that chance,” Giesbrecht said. “It’s the last major title that I’m after because I’ve won Canadian, world junior, Pan Am and different club championships but this is the one that I really covet!”
Giesbrecht has been a member of the Vancouver Grey Sox senior men’s team since 2005 and won a Canadian championship title with the team in 2007. He has signed with them again for 2009, which means flying to Vancouver most weekends throughout the summer to play ball. His wife Michelle and son Luke, five, often accompany him.
Giesbrecht also won an Allan Cup in senior men’s hockey with the 2003 Ile des Chenes North Stars.