OTTAWA – The Ontario Baseball Association is best known for one thing and one thing only when it comes to the sport in Canada… the development of high performance players.
John Milton, the Director of Coaching and Player Development for Baseball Ontario has readily admitted that the culture in the game of baseball in Ontario is to develop player in order to compete and win at the highest levels in Canada.
“Just earning a medal is not the goal anymore, the goal is the gold,” says Milton. “I’m not saying that we expect to win, but for us a medal is just a starting point.”
And Ontario has definitely gone above and beyond when it comes to the Baseball Canada National Championships as they have won the most medals of any province over the last decade with a total of 54 since 2000.
“We’ve developed a level of confidence in our programs that I believe has allowed us to succeed in those types of situations,” explains Milton.
One of those programs is the newly developed Spring Break Development Camp which brings 16 athletes from ages 14-17 down to St. Petersburg, Florida for one week to compete against U.S. high schools. Baseball Ontario entered in partnership with the Baseball Zone in order to get this camp off the ground.
“We are very happy to team up with Rick Johnston and Ryan Armstrong of the Baseball Zone and implement this skills development program,” says Milton. “We actually saw a lot of great strides in regards to player development just in those five days.”
But in order to develop a strong high performance and player development program, you need a strong grass roots development program as well. This is where Administrative Director Mary-Ann Smith and Administrative Coordinator Cindy Rossignoli enter the fray.
The Winterball program in Ontario schools has been a major player to the grass roots development across the province. In fact the North Bay Baseball Association has reported increases in their registration numbers and has credited Winterball for the recent influx.
“We’ve had a good response from schools,” says Rossignoli. “Other schools are asking for more information, word of mouth is spreading and it snowballs from there.”
“We’ve hardly done any advertising,” adds Rossignoli. “One school gets the package, word spreads and it grows from there. One school can make an impact.”
The Rally Cap program has been “a little bit of a challenge” according to Smith.
“The problem from our perspective is that house leagues in Ontario don’t need to register with the OBA,” explains Smith. “This makes it difficult to reach those associations who could benefit from Rally Cap because we can’t reach them.”
But one program that has longer reach is a newly implemented on-line umpire’s registration. It is similar in design to the registration program of the National Coaching Certification Program (NCCP).
“This program requires all of our umpires to re-certify every year, which makes it easier for us to track their progress and whether or not an umpire is permitted to officiate a game,” says Smith.
One distinct advantage that Ontario holds over the rest of the country when it comes to development of the sport is their association with the Toronto Blue Jays. With the influence of Major League Baseball so close to home it has created certain benefits for the OBA.
“It’s definitely helped out in terms of our Best Ever Coaching Clinic,” says Milton of their association with the Blue Jays. “The Jays have been a great help in terms of providing some of their minor league coaches and instructors to come and speak at our events.”
With registration numbers at a constant over the last five years and a continuous stream of talented players moving on to the next level, whether it is college or professional, Ontario has placed themselves among the elite in Canada with regards to player development.
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