They operate on a shoe-string budget. In fact, the players have to pay to play. Otherwise, they'd go broke.
Putting a brief in the newspaper announcing tryouts is the extent of the recruiting process. The coach says he won't beg players to come out.
But if there's been such a thing as a sure bet in Atlantic university athletics over the past decade, the University of New Brunswick baseball Cougars are it.
The Cougars are in their ninth year of existence. When they head to Ottawa for the nationals Thursday as champions of the Atlantic Intercollegiate Baseball Conference, it will mark the eighth time they've done so. The only time they didn't go, nobody went because rains washed out the conference playdowns. In 2003, they won a national championship at the tournament in Montreal, only the third team in UNB sports history to accomplish the feat.
Those other two teams - the 1980 soccer Red Shirts and 1998 hockey Varsity Reds - are full-fledged varsity sports with all the financial and recruiting perks that go with such programs. The baseball Cougars are basically a hit and miss operation each fall, operating under the auspices of the rec department at the school and banking on guys like head coach Mark Clark to make a seven-week commitment each and every September to make it work. They some do some fund-raising during the off-season and if they're lucky enough to secure a sponsor, so much the better. If costs exceed the budget, the players need to contribute.
For whatever reason, it's proven to be a magical formula and it's the reason why Clark keeps coming back every year. Actually, he's been a part of the Cougars program right from the get-go, signing up as an assistant when Chris 'Bubba' MacPherson decided to field a team wearing UNB colours in 1998. MacPherson ran it for two years, winning a silver medal the second year, before the cancer that would take his life in 2000 forced him to the sidelines.
Clark, former executive director of New Brunswick Special Olympics and now a consultant with Access Technical Solutions, has been the head guy ever since, and all he's done is lead them to the nationals every year. Along with that golden year in 2003 in which UNB defeated Laval 3-0 in the final, the Cougars have garnered a couple of silver medals under Clark's watch including a heart-breaking 15-inning loss to Laval in the national final in 2001 in Ottawa. To this day, Clark says it's the best game he's ever been involved with.
Even when he hasn't got a full complement at his disposal, Clark has been able to find a way. Take the current edition. Cougars needed to win their last game of the regular season against Saint Mary's, in Moncton no, less to even make the playoff round. Four out of the six conference teams make it, and at 7-9, UNB was able to take the fourth and final spot.
But since then, they've been unstoppable. They defeated a Dalhousie Tigers team that went 12-4 during the regular season in two straight games, both played in Halifax. And last weekend, they had to make the long trek to Sydney, N.S. to play the Cape Breton Capers and lo and behold, didn't they win twice there to claim the conference title.
Whatever it takes, apparently.
"Yeah, I guess it's all about the head coach," says Clark with a chuckle. "Actually, I've been telling these guys all along that we've got the potential to be a very good team. Maybe it's finally sunk in. We've always been able to hit, but there was a stretch when we went a little cold offensively. But then our pitching and defence took over. And here we are. We've got seven first year guys on this team and it might have taken them a little time to gell as a team. But we've been on the road for quite a while now, and there's nothing like hanging around each other on the road for a team to come together."
Why so much success year after year?
Clark says part of it can be traced to the quality of coaching at the minor levels and by extension, the various elite programs operating in the Fredericton baseball system. Case in point, this year both the junior and senior Royals won provincial titles. The upstart jr. Vikings represented the province at this year's nationals as did the midget AAA Royals.
A lot of these guys make their way to UNB in the fall, hence, giving Clark the depth of player pool that results in championships every season. This year's Cougars roster includes four players from each of the junior Royals and Vikings.
His third baseman, Brad Lawson, played some with the senior Royals. Another, catcher Corey Hughes, played with the midget Royals.
Factor in some of the guys coming to UNB from outside the region - there are a couple from the Miramichi area who played junior ball and three more from P.E.I. who either played junior or intermediate - and there's never a shortage of players.
Heck, the most valuable player in the senior league this past season - pitcher-infielder Josh Collins with the senior Royals - hasn't been able to suit up with the Cougars this fall because of his practice teaching at Leo Hayes, but as a full-fledged student at UNB, he's eligibile and is listed on the Cougars roster. There's an outside chance that he'll be with the team in Ottawa, says Clark. Same situation with infielder Andrew Rinzler, who played with the senior league's Moncton Mets and was a member of their national championship team this summer. He's at UNB and could have suited up with the Cougars if he had so chosen.
"There's a lot of good players around," says Clark. "Every year, we get 50 guys or so coming out to our tryouts. When we won in 2003, we had 25 guys on the roster. That's a lot. When you win a national title, it's not a problem. But when you lose, then you tend to hear things (complaints) from guys who want to play. And you can understand that. No matter how mnay players you have, you've got your core group of guys who are going to play. That's one of the reasons we decided to pare it down this year. And part of it is the cost. When you do as much travelling as we've done (like going to the nationals every year), it's going to cost."
But when you win consistently, it's addictive.
"It doesn't matter what sport it is. When you win a national title, it means something," says Clark. "The year we won, it was huge. UNB held a big reception for us at the Aitken Centre. We got a lot of press. It was a lot of fun. It's almost been five years, but for guys like Robbie Jeffrey and Matt Beckwith who were part of that team, they still talk about it. Matt Cheney (of the sr. Moncton Mets) played five years here and now he's back with us helping out the pitchers. (Assistant coaches) Mike (Keating) and Brent (Hallett) have been great helping out. These guys have been around the game for a long time."
Clark says the combination of the short season and the time of year - it's playoff season in the major leagues - are part of the lure. "It's a great time of year," says Clark. "I know, for instance, when we're on the road, the first thing the guys tend to do when they get back to the hotel is to turn on the ball game. Because it's the playoffs.
"It's not like hockey that goes on, it seems, for eight months," he says. "For us, it's basically seven weeks. Sure, some of the guys who might have played all summer long aren't really that keen in coming out. That's fine. I don't call players. It's entirely up to them if they want to come out with us."
For those who do, they're finding a competitive brand of ball.
"There's a lot more balance with the six teams in our conference now," says Clark. "St. FX has a team now. And I'd like to see a couple of more teams get in. Heck, with guys like Sorensen and Turgeon, St. Thomas could have had a pretty good team this year."
Posted by Admin at October 18, 2006 09:34 AM