Alberta Cree hurler (Justin Cardinal) rated top prospect.

BONNYVILLE, Alta.

If Justin Cardinal picks up a mile per hour or two on his fastball this spring, it'll likely get him a shot at a pro pitching job.

At six-foot-four-and-half inches tall and 211 pounds, the 17-year-old member of the Whitefish Lake First Nation is a bona fide prospect. After just two seasons of serious coaching, his fastball's been clocked at 86 mph -- average velocity for a major league hurler--and there are still enough bugs to iron out of his throwing mechanics to convince many scouts he'll eventually crack the magical 90 mph barrier that separates the millionaires from the beer-leaguers.

The right-hander from north-eastern Alberta is currently ranked 14th in Canada by Major League Baseball scouts and this spring promises to provide him with all the opportunities he'll need to move up that list in time for the June draft.

As one of five players from Alberta (out of a Canada-wide total total of 26) invited to attend the 10-day training camp for the Team Canada juniors, which starts April 20 in Orlando, Fla., Cardinal believes he's got a good chance to be on the host team's roster when Edmonton welcomes the best 18-year-old players on the planet to the world junior baseball championships this August.

A man of few words, Cardinal admits it's a bit unreal to be talking to professional scouts and to recruiters from American college teams, but the successes he's encountered during the past two seasons have given him the confidence to begin to believe that he has a future in the game.

"I don't know. It's all brand new. It's kind of weird talking to them," he said when asked what goes through his mind when he talks to representatives of the Los Angeles Dodgers or the Toronto Blue Jays.

Asked if he can picture a day when he'll walk to the mound at Toronto's SkyDome or some other big league ballpark, Cardinal admits it still seems like a dream.

"I don't know if I really believe in it but it's a goal," he said.

Fred Cardinal, the prospect's proud father, believes he made the right move a few seasons back when he gave up the chance to coach Justin on the Bonnyville club and ride his son's strong right arm to a provincial championship in AA or A calibre ball. He wanted his boy to get the kind of coaching that's only available at the top level of competition -- the Midget AAA level.

With the short summers and population numbers much lower than established Canadian baseball hotbeds such as Ontario, British Columbia and Quebec, legitimate northern Alberta hardball prospects are rare. Fort McMurray's Joe Young, pitcher Mike Johnson from Sherwood Park (just outside Edmonton) and 1999 all-star Jeff Zimmerman from Cardston are the lone Albertans currently in the Major Leagues.

But the northern part of the province has one high-quality elite Midget league -- for 16, 17 and 18 year olds -- with several teams based in Edmonton and others in Calgary and Red Deer. And, although the Nor'West Midget AAA League has a 25-year history, it's only in the last few seasons that top level coaching methods have come to be widely available.

The Cardinal family decided the oldest of their four boys had a chance to make it in the game and then discovered that Edmonton, a two-and-half-hour drive away, was the place to play.

"With him being out here, the competition level wasn't ... he wasn't learning anything," Fred Cardinal said. "He had to go to a higher league in order to progress and carry on."

Justin attended an indoor winter training program offered by then Baseball Alberta president Doug Boisvert who brought national-level instructors and major league scouts together to provide skill development to the top-rated players in the region. The connections he made in the winter convinced him to transfer to an Edmonton high school and stay with an uncle so he could play in the city. He eventually joind a summer program developed by Boisvert called, the Academy where many of the city's best 16 and 17 year olds played together in the Nor'West league against the best 18 year olds in northern Alberta.

The Academy summer program is a seven-day-a-week program that requires its members to be on the field at 8 a.m. on Saturdays. The program is designed to weed out the dabblers, attracting only very dedicated players.

The younger Cardinal's performance with the Academy team earned him a spot on Team Alberta and a chance to play against other provincial all-star teams at the 1999 Canada Cup in Trois Rivieres, Que. Cardinal made three appearances in that tournament, against Saskatchewan, Ontario and New Brunswick, and came home with two no-decisions and one loss as Team Alberta finished fourth.

It was one of many highlights for the hard-throwing Cree. He also travelled south to the baseball hotbeds of Medicine Hat -- for an American Legion tournament -- and Lethbridge. He finished the season by pitching in the Arizona Senior Fall Classic, a U.S. tournament involving American high school state all-star teams. There, he closed out a win against defending champions Missouri (Kansas City) and then beat Colorodo (Denver).

So far, Cardinal has heard from 10 American colleges who'd like to have him pitch for their team. After the Major League draft and the world championships, should he make that team as expected, he'll have to decide between college ball or pro ball.

At this moment he's projected to be drafted anywhere from the 12th round to the 20th round. A performance this spring, which shows his winter-long strength and conditioning program has paid off, could move him up the draft list considerably.

Fred Cardinal hopes other Native athletes will be encouraged by Justin's success.

"That's right," he said. "Justin could even be used as a role model in some of the communities."