One teenager was hospitalized, and over a dozen became seriously ill, as the humidex soared into the mid-30s this past Tuesday at the Treaty Four Fastball Tournament.

As the mercury rose, players started collapsing at the Muskowekwan First Nation ball diamonds.

"I was almost passing out playing ball", said Darian Sabit of Fishing Lake First Nation.

"When I went up to bat, I started feeling dizzy and stuff," said 17-year-old Avory Brania.

“I went to first and second (base). At second, I started getting blurry and then I went to third and they told me to keep running, so I went back to home… I don’t remember after that.”

The next thing Brania remembers is waking up in the hospital in Fort Qu’Appelle, where he was receiving treatment for heat stroke.

Brania’s mother, Naomi, learned what had happened from one of her son’s teammates. She says tournament organizers never phoned her, and she is horrified by what she sees as a lack of action by the adults at the tournament.

"Kids were starting to fall, faint, throw-up, vomit,” Naomi said. “Some of the children had diarrhea, and they still continued these events. At a place where there was no bathrooms."

But it was not just baseball players who were feeling the heat. Summer students from Fishing Lake First Nation were brought in to operate the concession.

Keisha Desjarlais, who was supervising the summer students, now admits it was a mistake. There was no water or fans for the students to cool down. And because the students had shared a bus with one of the baseball teams, she had no way of transporting the kids home when they started getting sick from the heat. She went to tournament organizers, but says they did not seem to take her concerns seriously.

"One of the organizers was standing at the canteen, and he told the kids, ‘you are all just a bunch of babies. You can't handle the heat? I am fine.’"

Preston Desjarlais was one of the summer students who knew he was not fine.

“I almost fell on the barbecue. I was feeling really dizzy, and my face was really close to the barbecue, and they just pulled me away. That is when I started puking up little bits of blood."

Desjarlais’ father, Brian, says Preston was sick and sore for days afterwards. He is furious that despite obvious signs of heat stroke, no one at the tournament took action.

"They put the almighty dollar before our children's health," he said.

Repeated requests to the Fishing Lake band office to speak with tournament organizers were not returned. But at least one of the coaches did offer a written response to the parents’ concerns.

Janelle Sunshine writes, “it is unfortunate what has happened. In any type of sporting event there is a risk of extreme temperatures in Saskatchewan. We take this unfortunate incident as a learning lesson for future events. As a volunteer and coach I would like to apologize to the kids that suffered from heat exhaustion and to the parents."

But most parents say they want to see more accountability from tournament organizers. Naomi Brania says their behavior was unacceptable.

"I am so not happy about how the kids were treated,” she said. “It took one kid being rushed to the hospital for them to finally call the ball game. All over a three-dollar trophy."