College baseball hopefuls to showcase skills at Lethbridge camp

For college baseball hopefuls entering their final years of high school, COVID-19 has made the recruiting process look a little different. Instead of trips south of the border to show off for scouts, players in Lethbridge have been playing in small cohorts this summer.

“We obviously didn’t get to start up on time, and then we were kind of in a delayed season, we started at the end of June,” said David Stewart, who is about to start Grade 11 at the Vauxhall Academy of Baseball. “We could only play against other Lethbridge kids, so it was different, and not as much exposure as usual.”

But Sam Hilgersom — about to enter Grade 12 at Lethbridge’s Catholic Central High School while part of the Prairie Baseball Academy — says cohort ball was still competitive.

“There was a little bit of a rivalry that got formed there because we were just with our one group of guys,” he said. “Seeing the same pitchers and facing the same hitters, you kind of got a good idea of what guys were bringing to the table.”

Hilgersom and Stewart both have big dreams of playing college baseball in the United States post-graduation.

Now they — and many of the players they’ve spent the summer playing against — will have the opportunity to get themselves on the map, at a camp in Lethbridge Wednesday.

Prairie Baseball Academy head coach Todd Hubka has partnered up with the Prep Baseball Report (PBR) to launch PBR Alberta. Hubka says he got the call from former Lethbridge Bull Chris Kelmo, who is now working as the director of scouting for PBR Canada.

“He reached out to me to see if we wanted to be a part of this — the PBR — which is basically a social media site for upcoming players, high school players, to show their skills and hopefully down the road find some scholarship money,” Hubka said.

Helping Hubka as the Assistant PBR Alberta Director will be Jesse Sawyer, former player and head coach of the Lethbridge Bulls, and PBR Alberta will name several associate scouts around the province.

Their first event, the Alberta Summer Open ID Camp at Spitz Stadium on Wednesday. Hubka says there’s 80 players –all who are set to be 2020-2024 high school graduates — on the roster.

“We’re going to break them into two groups so we can social distance,” he said.

“It’s going to be a really good day, I’ve looked at the list and there’s some pretty good kids coming.”

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The first group is set to start on Wednesday at 9 a.m.