Playing ball has brought Jeff Ellsworth great joy and plenty of pain, often both at the same time.
The 34-year-old solidly built softball player has played hurt, at times really hurt, in pursuit of triumph on the field.
There was the groin injury that left a large portion of one leg purple that failed to keep Ellsworth from stepping up to the plate or from covering centre field.
He played an entire tournament with a broken finger set in a splint that left his middle digit extended skyward, allowing him the luxury of providing unspoken assessment on any perceived bad call.
Ellsworth has tallied at least seven concussions that he is aware of: four coming from hockey and three from ball, including one resulting from a wayward pitch that split his helmet in two.
Today when he sneezes, he sees stars.
Yet, he notes with a sense of jock bravado, “I’ll play through anything.’’
Even as a boy growing up in St. Lawrence, P.E.I., the only son of Melvin and Sheila Ellsworth who was sandwiched between two sisters, saw the game leave its mark on his body.
At about eight or nine, Ellsworth started playing pick-up games of baseball with a dozen or so guys for hours and hours at a stretch. He was given the freedom to remain glued to a ball diamond as long as his homework was done.
“It was a lot of hours,’’ he recalls fondly. “I remember going home with blisters on my hands, going through a glove a summer.’’
He soon signed up for organized softball, splitting his defensive talents between shortstop and outfield. The adrenaline of competition stoked his intensity right from the start.
“I just loved to win from the get go,’’ he said. “I did not like to lose at all.’’
He went on to win a great deal over the years with his most recent victory coming earlier this month at the Pan American Championship in Medellin, Columbia.
Ellsworth was not only the captain of Canada’s softball team that took home gold, but he delivered the decisive blow with a two-run home run in the first inning of a 4-1 win in the championship game.
Being one of the best players on the field is old hat for Ellsworth.
He earned most-valuable-player honours at the annual Amateur Athletic Association national softball tournament in Florida three years in a row, hitting six home runs and sporting a spectacular .650 batting average at the 2011 tourney.
All that glory may never have been realized.
Ellsworth walked away from the game at age 20 grieving the loss of his older friend and baseball mentor Roger O’Halloran, who died of an enlarged heart, also known as athlete’s heart.
The following year, though, Ellsworth felt that his late friend’s memory would be better served if Ellsworth pursued his passion to play ball.
“Wherever I went,’’ he says, “I think I had something to prove.’’
Before marrying Lori Shea in 2002, he went to Winnipeg to play ball at the International Softball Congress as she stayed in P.E.I. to plan the wedding, .
This was his first test of playing in big tournaments every weekend. That, not surprisingly, fed Ellsworth’s burning desire to compete and to win.
“The competition got a little more intense when I got out there,’’ he said.
Ellsworth brings his share of intensity to the workplace, as well as to the ball field. During a 12-year run as recreation director for the Town of Alberton, he tried to offer as many recreational options as possible realizing not everyone was into sports like him.
He was particularly focused on fundraising, make that serious fundraising.
He authored a legendary one-night event that raised $96,000 with the money raised being spread among nine non-profit organizations in the community.
He went with a Price is Right theme, first calling up Bob Barker, the former long, long, long-time host of the immensely popular television game show to request Barker host the fundraiser.
Barker graciously declined the invitation, but gave the show his blessing when Ellsworth slyly altered the name of the fundraiser to Which Price is Right. Barker also donated some souvenirs to put up for sale, including a signed script from the TV show.
For the past two years, Ellsworth’s full-time job has been working as the learning manager at Holland College in Alberton for the two-year sports and leisure management program of which he is a graduate.
His ongoing passion for ball takes up practically all his time away from the college.
He spends 60 to 90 minutes a day, four or five days a week, at West End Elite in Elmsdale following a training program provided by Softball Canada. He operates the Field of Dreams Ball Academy three days a week, year-round, helping both softball and baseball players ages five to 25 hone their skills.
He and his wife also coach the under-16 girls provincial softball team.
Ellsworth loves to fish trout and hunt partridge, noting he only shoots what he will later eat. He says both activities are relaxing, perhaps offering a needed compromise to the intensity he brings to the ball diamond.
Yet with all the success he has had playing softball, Ellsworth says the camaraderie is really what stands out from his many years of play.
“It’s the friendships that really mean the most,’’ he said.
Having said that, Ellsworth still has his sights set on a major competition. He says while winning gold this month at the Pan American Championship was “huge,’’ being a part of a winning Team Canada squad at the softball world championship in March 2013 in New Zealand would be the ultimate.
His goal is to stay on the field as a player long enough to compete in 2015: first in the Pan American Championship in Toronto and later at the world championship in Saskatoon. His longer-term dream is to eventually coach a national softball team.
“I can’t walk away from the sport,’’ he said.
