News

Get to know your PSO (Provincial Sport Office) is back in time for the 2015 season with the aim to provide an informative look at each of the ten Provincial Baseball Organizations throughout Canada. The 2015 baseball season is already underway for some provinces, while others are still counting down the days until they can get on the field. Either way, baseball season is upon us so let’s take a closer look at the organizations that help bring baseball to communities across our country!

Name of PSO: Baseball Alberta
President: Don Paulencu
Executive Director/Registrar: Darren Dekinder
Headquarters: Edmonton
Phone #: 780-427-8943
Website: baseballalberta.com
Twitter: @BaseballAlberta
Established: 1967
Number of staff members: 4
Major Awards: Province of the Year (2004 & 2012)
Membership: 12,500 registered players in 2014 (up from 11,000 in 2013) including 5,500 Rally Cap players
Annual Provincial championship events: Baseball Alberta held 33 Provincial Championships in 2014 from 11U to Senior
Most notable baseball player(s) to come out of province: Mike Johnson (MLB-Orioles, Expos/Olympics/World Baseball Classic); Chris Reitsma (MLB-Reds, Braves, Mariners/Olympics/World Baseball Classic)
Famous non-baseball alumni: Jarome Iginla
Toronto 2015 Pan Am Games connections: Alberta umpires Mitch Ball and Jon Oko have been selected to work the men’s competition, while Corrie Davis has been selected for the women’s event. Baseball Alberta Technical Director Sheen Bromley is a member of the Women’s National Team coaching staff. Players Megan Cornelssen, Kelsey Lalor, Nicole Luchanski, Heidi Northcott and Samantha Ostrom are candidates to play on the Women’s National Team.

Three areas of focus in 2015:

Umpire development

“We have had spectacular growth in players participating in baseball over the last three years with the number of registered players increasing from 9,400 in 2011 to 12,500 in 2014,” said Baseball Alberta’s Darren Dekinder. “One of the challenges that we are experiencing is that this growth has not been matched by a similar growth rate in the number of umpires.”

Dekinder says that the existing group of approximately 500 umpires in the province is being stretched cover the many league games at all age levels that this growth has created.  To help with this issue, Baseball Alberta, through its Board of Directors, has engaged its member associations in an effort to recruit and retain more umpires to support the sport. 

“In particular, we are hoping that our largest associations such as St. Albert, Sherwood Park, Red Deer, and Grande Prairie will lead the way in working within their respective communities to attract prospective umpires and, perhaps more importantly, find ways to understand how to retain the umpires that already have within our system.”

Coach Mentorship

Baseball Alberta is launching a coach mentorship program starting in 2015 that will see coaches who attend an NCCP Initiation Clinic contact information for a more experienced coach for them to be able to connect with to get information on practice planning, game strategies, or any other aspects of coaching that they need. Thus far, 22 senior coaches from across the province have volunteered to participate in this initiative. 

“We hope that this new approach provides new coaches with a way to help them in their coach development,” explained Dekinder. “We believe that one of the keys to retention of player participation in sport is their experience with their coach.  We also hope that this new approach helps coaches access additional resources throughout their season that will enable them to create a positive experience in baseball for all of their players.”

Coach and Parent Conduct

Baseball Alberta’s Board has had several discussions on the topic of parent and coach conduct and how it impacts the player experience and how it impacts coach and umpire retention. 

“We are planning on supporting a University of Minnesota PhD candidate with her effort to collect data on parent conduct on the sidelines for youth baseball and softball,” added Dekinder. “I am sure that many of us have some individual experience where we witnessed something behind the backstop at a baseball game that we thought was inappropriate.

“We hope that through participation in this study, we will be able to collect some real data from which to better understand this aspect of baseball and develop an approach to ensure that baseball participation as a player, coach, or umpire is a positive experience.”

Baseball Alberta also welcomed a new staff member to the fold late in July 2014 as Sheen Bromley joined the office staff as Technical and Development Coordinator.

“He has brought a wealth of both experience as a coach and teacher of baseball as well as creativity in program design and delivery to the organization,” said Dekinder. “His efforts, including new initiatives such as the coach mentorship program, are already having a positive impact on baseball development in Alberta.”

Bromley was also added to the Women’s National Team coaching staff for the Pan-Am Games this July in Toronto.