Rural Roots Baseball Classic set for June 8th in Oyen
LETHBRIDGE - The Western Canadian Baseball League is returning to its roots this summer. With the inaugural Rural Roots Baseball Classic, the WCBL will pay homage to its history and championship spirit.
Left to right: WCBL President Kevin Kvame, managing director of corporate partnerships Mark Stiles, Oyen Mayor Doug Jones and Lee Tucker, Town of Oyen Recreation Director.
The highlight of the weekend will be a regular-season game between the Lethbridge Bulls and Sylvan Lake Gulls at Doug Lehman Field in Oyen, Alberta. First pitch is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. on Sunday, June 8th.
Oyen was selected as the first host of the Rural Roots Baseball Classic – which is set to become an annual tradition – in celebration of the Oyen Pronghorns championship season in the Saskatchewan Major Baseball League (SMBL) in 1995.
“We are very excited for the Rural Roots Baseball Classic. This is our version of Major League Baseball’s Field of Dreams game that they hold in Iowa,” said WCBL President Kevin Kvame.
“We’re going to try to move it around each year to a historical baseball location in our footprint and put on a regular-season WCBL game with two of our franchises. We’re excited to start in Oyen with a big community festival that will salute the Pronghorns.”
The Pronghorns became the first team from Alberta to win a title in the SMBL and opened the door for the Lethbridge Bulls to join the league in 1999, transforming the circuit to the Western Major Baseball League (WMBL) in 2002 until it was rebranded into the current WCBL in 2018. The Pronghorns helped elevate the league into a two-province entity that represented the growing baseball communities of Alberta and Saskatchewan.
TEAM TIES
Several ties between the Pronghorns, Bulls and Gulls exist to this day.
Aqil Samuel, the president of the Sylvan Lake Gulls, had the first at bat for the Pronghorns when they joined the SMBL.
“My two summers in Oyen were great. I was still in high school but got a chance to play in the
Saskatchewan Major Baseball League. Oyen actually became a bit of a second home for me for years, and I still have some great friends in the area. To be part of this league all these years later is pretty special and I can't wait to go back,” said Samuel.
“Bringing the Gulls back to Oyen to play the Bulls is going to be fun. Oyen is such a baseball town … it is going to be a great atmosphere and I know it is going to be well supported by the entire community.”
Graham Schetzsle – the founder & CEO of the Gulls - played first base on the 1995 championship team alongside Todd Hubka, who was the first head coach of the Lethbridge Bulls. Hubka continues to coach the Prairie Baseball Academy (PBA) in Lethbridge, which feeds a number of players to the WCBL every year.
Oyen Mayor Doug Jones is a past-president of the WCBL and member of the Alberta Sports Hall of Fame who helped establish the Badlands Baseball Academy in the town of 900 people. He also helped current WCBL President Kevin Kvame bring the Bulls into the league in 1999.
WEEKEND ACTIVITIES
The game between the Gulls and Bulls will help celebrate the contribution of the Oyen Pronghorns to the WCBL and it will also include a full slate of weekend activities.
Planned events include a golf tournament, barbeque, pancake breakfast, youth baseball camp and a 30th reunion of the ’95 Pronghorns team. Along with the signature Rural Roots Baseball Classic game between the Gulls and Bulls, there is a 13U game scheduled for a team from Oyen and Lethbridge. Many more festivities – which will be announced at a later date - are sure to make Oyen the place to be in early June.
GET TICKETS NOW
Tickets for the Rural Roots Baseball Classic are available through the Lethbridge Bulls website at https://tickets.bullsbaseball.com
The Bulls will officially be the home team for the game against the Sylvan Lake Gulls. The game starts at 3:30 pm on Sunday, June 8th at Doug Lehman Field.