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2 5 Th u rsd ay, A u g u st 11, 2011 O A K V ILLE B E A V E R w w w .in sid eH A LTO N .co m His parents still worry about balls hit back to the mound. The last thing we want is for him to get hurt, Richard Mann says, but at some point, youve gotta let him try. You just hope and pray. I dont know if we could have stopped Alex, anyway, adds Adele. But the progress he made pitching was encouraging enough that he attended the Royals tryouts last fall and made the team. Mann also returned to play for Blakelock this spring. In the Halton high school Division 2 championship game, he came to the plate with the bases loaded. Mann turned on a pitch and drove it deep into the gap in left centre. The ball one-hopped the fence and Mann pulled into second base with a three- run double. I know if I have two good arms, that ball is going to be gone, said Mann, who finished the day with three hits and five RBI and pitched the final three innings to close out a 9-3 victory over Corpus Christi. Mann knows he is not the same player he once was. At times it frustrates him. At oth- ers, hes simply happy to still be able to play the game he loves. He sometimes wonders if the surgery was necessary, at least the part which removed his bicep muscle and ligaments. His parents have no such doubts. There was a 99 per cent chance that it wouldnt have spread, says Richard Mann. But if it had been that one per cent, we couldnt have lived with ourselves. Still attracted scholarship offers While some of his new Royals teammates knew what he had been through, others did not. With a T-shirt on, Manns left arm looks no different from the right. Because of the missing muscle, the upper half of his left arm is much thinner. For those who dont know, some are tipped off by the different way in which Mann holds his glove. Some see the scar from his surgery. But to see Mann pitch, there are few clues to what he has endured over the last two years. He has increased the velocity on his pitches to 83 mph. During a recent tourna- ment in the U.S. with the Royals, Mann pitched 5 1/3 innings, allowing three runs against one of the top hitting teams in the tournament, a team filled with scholarship players and a couple of major league draft picks. Despite missing the pivotal year in which players are scouted, Mann pitched well enough to earn some scholarship offers, although not from the larger schools he had hoped for. With education still weighing heavily in fhis choice Mann won the Student o Excellence Award at Blakelock he turned down the U.S. offers and chose to go to Queens University. Undecided about what he wanted to study two years ago, he now has a clear picture of what he wants to accom- plish. He will study science at Queens with hopes of pursuing regenerative medicine. He hopes to find a way to regenerate and grow muscle. Id like to make my arm better. If they regenerate muscle, maybe they can surgically implant it, he says. Im already learning about it. They can already grow you a bladder using your own DNA. Planning on playing ball at Queen's Manns goal may be different now but that doesnt mean his baseball career is over. He plans on playing at Queens. And if his will to succeed is as strong in the laboratory as it is on the ball field, Mann will no doubt help improve the lives of many people, helping them regain normal function in their arms and legs. It would be tough to bet against him. Because, as Mann says in explaining his refusal to give up on baseball, I need to be good at something. Beaver sports reporter Herb Garbutt can be followed on Twitter at @Herbgarbutt f fSa ety a concern or parents Continued from page 24 d l d b f lCana a, Eng an in rug y ina The Canadian womens rugby team hopes Tuesdays result against England at Appleby College isnt a precursor of things to come. England scored three second-half tries to defeat Canada 22-10 in the final round- robin game for both teams at the Nations Cup womens rugby tournament. The two teams will meet again in Saturdays final, a 4 p.m. kickoff at Appleby. England trailed 5-3 at the half before rallying for the win, overcoming Canadian tries by Cheryl Phillips and Kayla Mack. We made mistakes that we planned on not making, said Canadian head coach John Tait. We were a little bit overwhelmed and we let it get to us, but were looking forward to Saturday because we can do better than that. Kelsey Willoughby, who made her first-ever start for Canada Tuesday, added, It was a very intense game. Its so differ- ent from any other kind of rugby Ive ever played before the intensity and fast pace Im sure each team has some- thing they havent shown yet and Im really looking (forward) to this Saturday. England finished the round-robin por- tion of the tournament with a 3-0 mark. Canada went 2-1. In Tuesdays other contest at Appleby, South Africa defeated the United States 26-22. Those teams will clash once again in Saturdays consolation, also at Appleby, beginning at 2 p.m. It won't be just boats, fish and ducks in the water along Oakville's shoreline this weekend. There will also be plenty of swimmers, as the Lake Ontario Swim Team (L.O.S.T.) holds the largest swimming race ever held in Lake Ontario. Saturday's point-to-point swim from the foot of Maple Grove Drive to the Navy Street Pier is expected to draw upwards of 100 swimmers from across Ontario, the United States and even the United Kingdom. The 3.8-kilometre distance of the annual race, now in its fourth year, is the Ironman Triathlon distance. The race will run from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m., with the first finisher anticipated to com- plete the course at approximately 8:45 a.m. In addition to this weekend's event, L.O.S.T. swimmer Melanie Price is attempt- ing to cross Lake Ontario today (Thursday). 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