Elite baseball coming to Niagara
The Niagara District is back in the Elite Baseball League of Ontario.
The Greater Niagara Baseball Association, in conjunction with the Niagara District, applied for and were granted acceptance in the EBLO, the AAA baseball series in the province.
“It was a full joint effort with the GNBA, NDBA and Baseball Ontario,” long time GNBA coach and executive Geoff Allen said. “A lot of work was put into this.
“It allows us to play at the highest level we can in Ontario.”
The GNBA were an original member of the EBLO in 2014.
Niagara will field teams in the 15U, 16U and 18U divisions starting in 2020.
“Our players dictated that this could happen because they’re playing at a higher level,” Allen said. “The COBA (Central Ontario Baseball Association) league isn’t competitive for us anymore and it’s time to take the next step and get into the AAA program.
“The players have put in the work and become better players so we can offer them the same.”
Allen feels playing against topnotch competition is the best way for players to improve and achieve their maximum potential.
“I’ve always said I want to play against the best,” said Allen, who is a member of the Team Ontario coaching staff. “I’d rather be the worst in AAA than the best in AA just in the sense you are playing against the best players.
“Good athletes play up to their competition so now we’ve put them in a position where they are going to be playing against the best.”
Allen was quick to give credit to Al Dobbin and John DiCicco of the NDBA as well as Jay Burdon, Bob Pysher, Vito Scaringi and Kevin Niven of GNBA for working together.
“There have been a lot of guys who have been huge with this,” he said. “We’ve been meeting a lot and the e-mails have been flying back and forth. To do it right, there has to be a lot of planning involved.”
Allen said the next step will be to nail down tryout dates for the teams.
“We’ve got past the administrative stuff, now we’re on to the actual baseball operations side of it,” Allen said. “It’s something to look forward to. The main focus of the program with be our winter development. We’re committed to taking the next step when it comes to athlete development, and we have some real good baseball people coming on board to help.”
Tryouts are expected to be held in late August and early September.
Burdon will coach the U15 squad, Darrell Kemp the U16 team and Sean Krawchuk the U18 team. Further updates will be made on gnbafalcons.com.
In June of 2014, Baseball Ontario announced that four of its affiliated associations had signed an agreement to form a new 18u Midget Elite League (MEL) commencing with the 2015 season. With the success of the league, in 2019 EBLO has grown to 13 regions, three age groups and over 50 teams. In that time the EBLO has had over 100 athletes pursue their dreams of playing University and College baseball.
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