New Baseball Academy at Eagle Butte High School to open in the fall

DUNMORE - Having experienced great success with the current Badlands Badgers Baseball Academy in Oyen, Prairie Rose Public Schools will be adding another competitive baseball program to the roster. Starting in the fall of 2025, Eagle Butte High School will launch the South Alberta Baseball Academy.

“The Badgers program was the first academy program offered by Prairie Rose,” says Director of Enhanced Programming for PRPS Darren MacMillan. “Over the years the Badgers have had great success in developing players who have gone on to play collegiate ball in the US. Having a program out of Eagle Butte would have benefits for both teams.”

Unlike other high school academy sports programs such as hockey, no academy league with official standings exists for baseball. Teams often have to travel long distances just to compete with other schools who offer competitive baseball options. MacMillan hopes that adding another competitive team to the region will support the growth of baseball in the area and possibly result in establishing an academy league in the future.

“It is a challenge to offer baseball year-round in a country where the weather impacts access to facilities,” adds MacMillan. “In Oyen we are incredibly lucky to have “The Barn” which is a massive 13,000 square foot indoor training facility, and now with the addition of the South Alberta Collegiate building by the airport we have removed one of the bigger obstacles around offering a competitive baseball program.”

Spearheading the new program will be Marc MacMillan who has an extensive baseball resume in the southern US market. His experience includes Head Coach at Charleston Southern University, Assistant Coach and Director of Operations at the University of Mississippi, and Associate Head Coach at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff. Additionally, Marc operates Marc MacMillan Baseball, which provides training camps for children to learn and grow their baseball skills.

“I am looking forward to being part of this new opportunity to grow baseball at the high school level in southern Alberta,” says Marc MacMillan. “Even though I have lived in the southern US most of my life, I have family in the Medicine Hat and Milk River regions. When I was asked to coach and develop this new program for the South Alberta Baseball Academy, it was my chance to reconnect with my Canadian roots and bring home what I have learned from my time building competitive baseball players in the US market.”

Earlier this year Prairie Rose Public Schools announced the partnership with the Mavericks baseball organization (WCBL) to develop baseball fundamentals in students from grades 4 - 9. Led by head coach and program director Greg Morrison, the Mavericks School of Baseball now operates at four PRPS schools with 52 students enrolled.