World Series looking for volunteers

By Lethbridge Herald on May 2, 2024.

Herald FILE photo Prairie Baseball AcademyÕs Koby Smith is forced to go airborne to throw over to first base to complete the double play as Vancouver Island University MarinersÕ James Joyce slides into him during Canadian College World Series action at Spitz Stadium last year. The year-end league championship will be held in Lethbridge again this season and organizers are in need of volunteers.

By Justin Seward

Lethbridge Herald

The Canadian College World Series is being hosted by the varsity  Prairie Baseball Academy team in a couple of weeks’ time and organizers are looking for more volunteers to fill positions.

Positions that need to be filled include for score keepers, front gate attendants, PA announcer, video board operators, in-game DJs and on-field crews.

“We’re always looking for people to come out and help out somehow, whether it’d be for an hour, or two hours or for a day,” said Brent Radlinsky, Under the Lights Sports and Entertainment’s game day operations and marketing manager.

“Whatever they can do to help out around the park  just to make sure the players get the opportunity that they deserve because every other team that comes here, they don’t have to be voluntold Per se to do anything. We like to maybe give the players just  a weekend where they can just be baseball players and not worry about all [the] behind-the-scenes stuff.”

Radlinsky said just to be around the park, when asked about what’s the most rewarding part of volunteering for this event.

“There’s some  great camaraderie that can be had,” said Radlinsky.

“I’ve been a part of this tournament for the last couple of years as an umpire on the field and getting to know people that you see from friendly faces … year in [and] year out is a good thing and getting to know some of the coaches from other places.”

Radlinsky says it’s a bigger event than people actually realize.

“The quality of baseball  is very comparable to WCBL [Western Canadian Baseball League] baseball, if not a little bit more competitive,” said Radlinsky.

“The players are playing for old friends and their colleges a lot. So the competitiveness of the baseball is probably higher than we’ll see throughout the summer here in Lethbridge. It’s a great brand of baseball, it’s the college kids, university kids. But for some of these guys it’s the last time they’ll ever play baseball. So the stakes are pretty high for a lot of these teams [and] a lot of these players.”

Interested volunteers can contact Radlinsky at (403) 320-2025 ext. 109 or email brent@underthelights.ca.

The Canadian College World Series is from May 16-20 at Spitz Stadium. 

Teams include PBA and the seven other Canadian College Baseball Conference teams.