{"id":21019,"date":"2018-06-28T10:10:08","date_gmt":"2018-06-28T14:10:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=21019"},"modified":"2018-06-28T10:10:08","modified_gmt":"2018-06-28T14:10:08","slug":"minor-bantam-jay-tagged-for-under-16-team-ontario","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/minor-bantam-jay-tagged-for-under-16-team-ontario\/","title":{"rendered":"Minor Bantam Jay tagged for Under-16 Team Ontario"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Jake Courtepatte<\/strong><\/p>\n

Claire Johnson has grown used to being the only girl on an all-boys baseball team, ever since the days of t-ball, and her debut with the Rookie Aurora-King Jays.
\n\u201cI encouraged her to make the change to softball this past season, but she refused,\u201d said her mother, Carmen Spiteri-Johnson. \u201cHer love for baseball is very strong.\u201d
\nThis past weekend, the Aurora native used that passion as fuel to earn a selection to the Under-16 Team Ontario girls squad, at only 14 years of age.
\nAn open invitation to any girls under the age of sixteen across the province, Johnson competed against approximately fifty other athletes in a six-tryout grind to claim a spot for the all-around Minor Bantam Jay.
\nThough mainly a first baseman, Johnson has utilized her skills at the catcher and pitcher position as well, often referred to as \u201ccoachable\u201d by team staff.
\n\u201cShe listens to her coaches and tries to respond to their feedback both between and within games,\u201d said Spiteri-Johnson.
\nHer keen eye and ear for the game comes with years of experience: first picking up a baseball as a toddler, Johnson had two key mentors on the diamond at an early age in both her older brother Matt and older sister Olivia, who played baseball and softball respectively.
\nReferred to as \u201ceveryone\u2019s little sister\u201d, the young Johnson showed promise when she learned to pitch at the tender age of three.
\nTeam Ontario will travel to Bedford, Nova Scotia in late August to compete in the 2018 Under-16 Girls Invitational Championships, competing against the nine other provinces for the national title.
\nBeyond her first taste of the provincial and national spotlight, Johnson has big plans for the future.
\n\u201cClaire loves baseball and wants to play for as long as she can,\u201d said Spiteri-Johnson. \u201cHer ultimate dream would be to get a scholarship, and maybe even see women playing in professional baseball leagues.\u201d
\nA scholarship certainly seems in the books for the up-and-coming athlete: having recently graduated from grade eight at Highview Public School, Johnson was named co-Valedictorian, while earning a pair of academic awards as well as the Female Athlete of the Year, playing on seven or more sports teams between grades seven and eight.
\nJohnson would like to thank her teachers, Mr. Congram and Mr. Kaufman, for helping her achieve both her athletic and academic goals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Claire Johnson has grown used to being the only girl on an all-boys baseball team, ever since the days of t-ball, and her debut with the Rookie Aurora-King Jays.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":21000,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-sports","category-sports"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/2018-06-28-08.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21019"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21019\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}