PBA welcomes four members into Hall of Fame

By Lethbridge Herald on February 3, 2026.

Nathan Reiter

Lethbridge Herald

It was a night of celebration for the Prairie Baseball Academy.

The PBA honoured their seventh annual Hall of Fame induction class at the Sandman Signature Hotel on Saturday night as part of the Celebration of Baseball banquet.

Randy Ruff was lone inductee into the builder category while Dylan Holton, David Cooper and Mike Kicia were all enshrined in the player category.

In an interview with the Herald, PBA head coach Todd Hubka says it’s great to recognize those who have had strong contributions to the program.

“It’s fun bringing back alumni and builders of the program. With Randy, showing our support towards them for what they’ve done for the program and how successful our alumni have been. David, Mike and Dylan won a world series at Mount Olive and where their careers are today too. They’re outstanding young men and well-deserved to be in the Hall of Fame.”

In addition to the Hall of Fame, the program handed out over $123,000 worth of scholarships to the current players in the program. PBA operates both a varsity and junior varsity program, all players must be full-time students at either Lethbridge Polytechnic or the University of Lethbridge.

“It’s pretty amazing that every year we keep growing that scholarship program.” Hubka said. “The support that we get for our golf tournament, the field of screams, the local businesses that help us out and the alumni, the family and friends and the memorial scholarships it’s crazy. Proud of our players this year with the GPA that they had and that’s why we had to raise more money because of their academics and that’s what they’re here for so proud of them.”

“It’s a night that’s on our calendar every year and it’s about raising some funds for our program but more importantly it’s about celebrating the Prairie Baseball Academy and what this program has done for this community. With the support (of) our youth teams and running our camps and a lot of PBA players after their academics are over, they end up living here. I just think the growth of this community because of Prairie Baseball Academy is unbelievable.”

Randy Ruff has been a long time volunteer in Lethbridge and has dedicated his time to various organizations in the city from the PBA, Little League, minor hockey and softball.

He was introduced by his son Jared who sits on the board of the PBA alumni association. During his acceptance speech, Ruff encouraged present PBA players to help sport once their playing careers are finished.  

“When you volunteer, coach, or put in the time to help out amateur sports, you never do it for this reason, to get honored like this. The real drivers behind amateur sports are the volunteers. There’s many of you here, and I share that with all the people I’ve worked with throughout the years. I’ve got some advice for the PBA players. Once you finish playing, settle down on life, please give back to the community. Do some coaching, do some volunteering, because amateur sports survives on that.”

The three players inducted all moved on to win a championship following their time with the PBA. Holton, Cooper and Kicia all won an NCAA Division II national championship with the University of Mount Olive Trojans in 2008.

The connections between PBA and Mount Olive run deep to this day. Current Trojan head coach Robb Watt is a past inductee of the PBA Hall of Fame. Mount Olive currently has one PBA alumni on their roster this season in right-handed pitcher Aiden Newton. Other recent PBA players to move onto Mount Olive include Kai Poffenroth and Josh Kabayama.

During his acceptance speech, Holton spoke about two sayings used by former PBA head coach Blair Kubicek during his time in the program still play a major role in his life today.. The first being “the only place you’ll find success before work is in the dictionary” and “Life is 10% of what happens and 90% of how you react to it”.

“Those weren’t just sayings around the field, they were a way of life around here.” Holton said. “They taught us accountability, ownership, resilience, and I still carry those into my career, my marriage, and raising my own kids.”

David Cooper currently sits in third place in Mount Olive program history with a career .401 batting average during his time with the Trojans. Following his collegiate career, Cooper was selected in the 44th round of the 2008 MLB Draft by the Arizona Diamondbacks, 1337th overall. 

He was not the only David Cooper to be selected in the 2008 MLB Draft. The Toronto Blue Jays took a first baseman out of the University of California-Berkley in the first round with the same name.

“I was working at a restaurant making salad, and all of a sudden my wife and many other people came rounding in, hey you got drafted, I’m like that’s not me.” Cooper said. “For the next eight years of my life I kept getting fan mail, and you get the cards, and the courtesy thing to do is you sign it, you send it back, because it’s kids. It’s an ongoing joke. 43 rounds later I got drafted, and I want to go back to the team. I wasn’t drafted because of my body or anything like that. It had to do with the team and the success of the 2008 team that I played on.”

With his baseball career taking him to hundreds of baseball stadiums all over North America, Cooper says he still gets a special feeling whenever he revisits Lloyd Nolan Yard. 

“It really makes me realize that this is where I learned how to play the game of baseball. We all have the same opinion. For us, this is where it started, we had careers after and it went on, but this made us who we are today.”

Kicia was known for being a guy who helped push his teammates to be better during his time at PBA. He was known for being able to lift as much weight as anyone in the weight room.

Following his playing career, he served as a minor league strength and conditioning coach with both the Florida Marlins and New York Yankees. 

“When Omar (Kadir) called me and let me know about this induction, my exact response to him was, for what?” Kicia explained. “What Dylan, David and I accomplished together is actually what PBA is about. It’s about working hard, respecting the game, and doing things the right way. From lifting at 6 a.m., long practices, winning championships together to supporting each other as teammates and as friends. Everything we achieved was a product of dedication, teamwork, and value to be still here at PBA.”