The origins of Mt.A’s newest sports team
The Mt.A men’s baseball team is a new sports team on campus this year, started by first-year student Cameron Henderson and second-year student Jack Dewan. In an interview with The Argosy, Henderson said he was inspired to start the team because playing baseball at a university level was important to him. “[I] really wanted to come to Mt.A so I just thought to start the program ourselves,” Henderson said. With the help of Dewan, Henderson was able to start the process of proposing the team to the MASU, resulting in Mt.A’s first baseball team since 1911.
Henderson said that former MASU president, Wilson Paluch, helped get them on their feet by supporting them in finding their coach, John Murray, and helping them with the logistics at the beginning. “He was in office for a week after we got approved…He spent a lot of his free time helping us out,” Henderson said.
Now that the team is up and running, Henderson and Dewan spend about two hours a day managing it. As the team is so new, they are not in the Atlantic Collegiate Baseball Association (ACBA), so they dedicate a lot of their own time scheduling games, booking fields, and ordering their own uniforms. They dedicate their time on the weekends to hosting a baseball camp for children from the ages of five to 14 and giving private lessons to receive funding for the team. Aside from the camp and private lessons, the team is funded by Rose’s Independent Grocer in downtown Sackville, club team player fees, and Dewan’s own coach, Roberto Suppa, back in Ottawa.
Being such a new team, Henderson and Dewan were surprised they were able to play at all this season. “We didn’t think we’d have enough interest to even roster a full team this year,” Henderson said. However, the team was heavily present on social media, and let people reach out to them to be on the team. Nine out of 16 players are first-year students, having reached out through social media with interest in playing on the team.
The team plays out of Amherst, as it is the closest town with a baseball diamond big enough for a university team. They have played four games so far this season, two of them being against the University of Maine at Fort Kent. They have also played against another brand new team at the University of Moncton, and Holland College in P.E.I.
They have designed a four-year program with their hopes for the future of the team. Year one, their main goal was to “just create a team.” By next year they would like to join the ACBA and play against other teams in the league. By year four, they hope the team will qualify for nationals.
Being such a new team, their game schedule is not posted on the website, so keep an eye out on their Instagram page, @mtamountiesbaseball, to see where they are playing next.