Plans are underway to honour an iconic youth baseball coach in Surrey, who lost his battle with cancer earlier this year.
Ed Myers coached Whalley Little League for 38 years, an incredible run for a guy who first got involved because he didn’t like what the kids were wearing on the field.
“He was upset that we had to wear these crappy uniforms and we didn’t have pants,” Ed’s eldest son Calvin Myers told Global’s This is BC.
“So the next year he ordered good uniforms and he got my mom to make all the team’s pants.”
The league is planning to honour Myers many ways this season, including with a patch on every player’s uniform.
“We were going to go with ‘EM’ for Ed Myers but we decide to go with ‘ED,’” said his youngest son Mike Myers.
Twice he coached his team to the World Series, picking up Canadian championship rings along the way.
Myers was a great instructor and an incredible motivator who always made sure his players were set before first pitch.
“He’d look at the kids and say are you ready? And the kids would be like, ‘Oh yeah we’re ready, we’re ready.’ And then he would say, ‘I can’t hear you, are you ready?’ And then it was, ‘We’re ready!’” said Mike Myers shaking his fists in the air.
“Loud voice. You could always hear him,” remembered Whalley Little League president Gavin Burke.
Later in his coaching career there was talk that maybe it was time for Ed to retire so he could have some more free time.
“Oh man, every year,” Calvin Myers laughed. “Every year it was a debate.”
For nearly four decades Ed Myers gave everything he had to Whalley Little League. He is a legend at the field.
“When I see this park, I think of Dad,” said Mike Myers looking around Whalley Athletic Park.
“The thing he was proudest of was just being able to be there for the kids every year,” added Calvin Myers.
To contact Jay Durant with a story idea for This is BC, email him details and contact information at thisisbc@globalnews.ca
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