WOLFPACK BASEBALL TO PHOENIX FOR SPRING TRAINING
For Release: Thurs February 12, 2009
Kamloops, BC—For the sixth year in a row, the Thompson Rivers University WolfPack baseball team will emulate the pros and have spring training in Arizona. Head coach Ray Chadwick is taking his 32 man roster to Phoenix on Friday (Feb 13).
“It’ll be a different feeling this year for sure,’ says Chadwick referring to the fact that in previous seasons, his team has been able to have a couple of practices outside before heading to Phoenix. “That’s not happening this year. We’ll go straight from indoors to outdoors. Luckily, we will have one day to work out when we first get to Phoenix. But for the outfielders especially, it’ll be a steep learning curve. I’m worried that the outfielders won’t be able to see balls off the bat”.
Chadwick admits that not being able to practice outside of the TRU Gym will put his club behind initially in development. “Those guys (the U.S. teams) will have played as many as 15 games by the time we meet up with them. But by the end of the week, we are pretty competitive with them.”
Unlike last year, where the WolfPack played only five games. TRU will face eight American opponents including Central Oregon in Bend on the way home.
“The American Schools set their schedule very early,” says Chadwick “They are only allowed to play a certain number of games. I lined these ones up last year. If we beat a few teams one year, the following season they don’t want to play us. This time around, we are playing teams that we haven’t seen for a couple of years.”
Three of the teams the WolfPack are playing are in the top 20 of the National Junior College Athletic Association rankings. Glendale Community College (Mesa, Az) is ranked 8 th, Chandler-Gilbert (Gilbert, Az) is rated 12 th with Phoenix College in the number 20 spot.
“And Yavapi (Prescott, Az) is traditionally one of the stongest programs in the U.S. as well” Chadwick explains.
Chadwick believes the sojourn to Phoenix is a definite benefit to his team’s regular season performance. “ We are always a week or two before any of the other teams in our league even thinking of playing a game. The teams in Alberta are even further behind than that. The main reason we go down there is to get a jump on the rest of the league”.
The WolfPack play their first game Monday, February 16 against South Mountain Community College of Tempe Arizona (2 pm) before meeting Phoenix College that night in Phoenix (7 pm).
CALLED STRIKES: Chadwick plans to change things up for spring training next year. The ‘Pack will use the Los Angeles area as a base site and play a number of college teams in Southern California. “We’ve never gone there before,” he says. “It’ll be a nice change of pace. We’ll see how it works.”
The WolfPack open their Canadian College Baseball Conference season up March 21 st at NorBrock Stadium when they host the defending league champion Prairie Baseball Academy of Lethbridge, Alta and Kwantlen Polytechnic Eagles of Surrey, BC.