By Jacques Lanciault

Quebec’s Mr. Baseball

Last January, Louis-Christophe Côté-Turcotte joined the ranks of the Dakota College in Bottineau, which plays in Division II of the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA )… But he didn’t play!

When he arrived, he could not take part in games, as the NJCAA was awaiting certain documents from him to confirm his eligibility. Then, a few days after receiving the green light from American college ball… COVID-19 arrived and the season was brought to a halt!

Yet the young man was all set. Throughout the fall of 2019, Côté-Turcotte had trained assiduously, five-to-six days a week, with the “Evolution Athlete Performance Center” under the supervision of David Leblanc and Jean-Luc Blaquière.

In Quebec at the end of his winter session, Côté-Turcotte took part in the shortened season in the Quebec Elite Junior Baseball League (LBJÉQ) with the Montreal Orioles ... while continuing his intensive training with Leblanc and Blaquière.

But its summer season in Quebec was disappointing!

“It was difficult this summer”, says the athlete who will blow out 21 candles next January. “Especially since I suffered a thumb injury at the end of the season and I felt stiffness in the right side of my abdomen. “

Before his departure for North Dakota in August, Côté-Turcotte admits that it was psychologically difficult.

His arrival in Bottineau, the small town where his college is located 16 kilometres from the Canadian border, brought back a little positivism in him, because the team was able to train almost normally during all fall.

“It was good this fall,” he wrote to us. “Since I was here last winter, I already knew the freshmen well. They are all good guys and since our college is in a small town and we have little to do other than training together, especially with COVID, it creates friendships.”

Côté-Turcotte therefore found himself among friends on a site where the facilities are beautiful and where everything is there to promote training even during a pandemic.

“We trained despite the COVID, we practised without a mask, but when we had to do the sprints we had to put on our mask,” he said. “To make sure neither of us had it, we had tests for COVID every Wednesday … and everything was really well disinfected, especially in the training room.”

And the Jacks, the nickname of the team, have even played games.

“We played against the Mayville State University ‘JV’ team twice, but otherwise we played inter-squad games, often four times a weekend. Then we ended our fall season with a World Series and a doubleheader against the varsity from Mayville.”

If the Dakota College baseball team was able to play so many games, it is because on the college site, Côté-Turcotte tells us, there have been very few cases of COVID-19 infection to detect. .

During his training at “Center de performance Evolution Athlete” before the start of the season in the LBJÉQ, Côté-Turcotte worked actively with Jean-Luc Blaquière to modify his batting momentum.

“I was super lucky to be able to work with Jean-Luc. Together we watched and studied videos to correct my momentum. “

When the season kicked off with the Montreal Orioles, the Pierrefonds player expected to perform well … but it didn’t. Obviously he was disappointed.

Then when he got to college at the end of August, he was still recovering from his thumb strain!

“I missed the first two weeks of training. So I took the opportunity to get to know my teammates better by talking about baseball with them.“

Then on his return to play, Côté-Turcotte had a hit in 10 appearances .

“I was well, but I wasn’t hitting … which was still very hard on my mind and on my confidence. “

“But, I felt I was just missing a little something to unlock everything… and I found it and unlocked everything.”

What is good about Côté-Turcotte is that he has a good support system. He can count on Patrick D’Aoust to talk about how to play the “game” or on Danny Plante to give him the little push of encouragement that will make him react. And he can also communicate with Blaquière when he feels the need to speak “stick”.

“I can always count on advice from the right people,” he wrote.