The John Cho Cup

HISTORY OF THE JOHN CHO CUP

Spruce City Stadium has had the best fastball teams from Western Canada coming together to play in front of the fans in our city since the late 60's when Prince George Sports Hall of Famer Charlie Ghostkeeper created an Indigenous Fastball Tournament for the city to encourage our people to get active in sports. Teams from all directions supported the event and over the last five decades the tournament is still evolving to keep quality fastball alive in our Lheidli T'enneh Territory.

Three years ago the tournament changed direction by opening the event to all people and invested resources towards increasing the amount of Women's teams attending while adding the U23 Men's Division. With the inclusion of all athletes and teams, the event continues to attract quality teams to the tournament. Now in its third year of existence, the committee continues to work year round networking and planning to improve the event. 

Our hard work has paid off and is attracting the best athletes, teams and umpires that are available in today's game and the 2024 edition of the John Cho Cup will have athletes from New Zealand, Argentina, Mexico, USA, Czechia and Canada. 

This year's event has been sanctioned by the International Softball Congress which determines the winner of the Men's Open Division, who will qualify for the 2024 International Softball Congress Championships set for Softball City (August 10-17, 2024). The Open Invitational Division will include the Prince George River Kings (BC), Vanderhoof Rippers (BC), STK (BC), Grande Prairie Pirates (AB), J&B Bombers, Can-West Thunder (MB) and the Gordon's Golden Hawks (SK).

The Men's Division will have several teams from BC including the host Big Guy Lake Reds, Saik'uz Tigers, Nak'azdli Chiefs, Takla Lakers, Witset Arrows, Moricetown Cubs, Burns Lake Bandits, Nak'azdli Hummingbirds, Nadleh Hornets, Pukaist Heat, Gordy's Selects & teams from out of province. 

The U23 Men's Division was added to the John Cho Cup tournament in 2022 and has grown from four local squads that didn't have matching uniforms to having two North American Indigenous Games teams and the U17 Terrace squad that attended the U17 Nationals in Ontario. This year's tournament will have the BC Bombers (Invermere), STK Grizzlies (Kamloops), Nak'azdli Rez Sox, Saik'uz Jr Tigers, BGL Jr Reds and Saddle Lake Alberta to name the teams that have confirmed a spot for the 2024 event. 

The Women's Division has been part of the John Cho Cup for the last ten years and was added under the tournament name "Canada Day Fastpitch". The tournament historically had only BC teams, however last year's champions are from Alexander, Alberta and the U23 Mascwacis Ladies will join teams from our province including Sqwlax Saints (Chase), Shuswap Windwalkers (Canim Lake), BGL A's and teams from the Prince George Women's Fastball League.