The Sylvan Lake Gulls salute their fans after a game this season. (Karlin Stickel Photography)

By Jordan Davidson (Twitter: @JordanDHeyNow)

great addition to the community

Gulls first season ends early, but on a high note

Aug 20, 2021 | 1:21 PM

The Sylvan Lake Gulls’ inaugural season wrapped up this week when the team was eliminated from the first round of the WCBL playoffs.

The Western Canadian Baseball League’s newest team taken out by the Lethbridge Bulls on Aug. 18, in the second game of their best-of-three series. The scores were 4-2 (in Sylvan Lake) and 3-2 (in Lethbridge) over the two games.

Despite the early exit, Gulls management is very proud of how the team played, not to mention how they were able to build a stadium and baseball team from scratch during a pandemic.

General Manager and President of Baseball Operations Aqil Samuel tells rdnewsNOW there have been a number COVID-related challenges the team has had to face, including being unable to recruit players from the U.S.

“We had 34 guys in our original lineup all recruited and signed, then I had to backpedal after realizing we couldn’t get the American guys across the border,” he says. “We went with an all-Canadian format and a shorter season, so we had to pivot on that one.”

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They also faced supply issues, which is why the stadium was without a scoreboard of Wi-Fi for the maiden campaign.

Samuel also shared that the community of Sylvan Lake and central Alberta really embraced the Gulls, bringing in more than 20,000 fans over the 20-game season.

“The amount of season ticket requests for next year has just been crazy. The phone has been ringing off the hook all morning here,” he says. “We’re pretty happy with it, having to put it together basically on the fly, and the reaction that we got has been great.”

While it’s too early to tell which players will return in 2022, Samuel says positive feedback about Gulls players within the community has been very encouraging.

“We really wanted to provide them with the pro experience and all we asked in return is that they act like pros in the community,” says Samuel. “We got great feedback from the billets, from restaurant owners, and from bar owners in town. They were grateful for what we were providing them and they paid us back by being good citizens.”

Samuel emphasizes that next season should include a working scoreboard, and new luxury boxes in the upper part of the stadium at Pogadl Park.

More information is at sylvanlakegulls.com.