By Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19)

handling the curve(ball)

Waiting the hardest part as recruiting for RDC’s new baseball team continues

Apr 17, 2020 | 12:24 PM

As a worldwide pandemic rages on, it continues to be a waiting game for Red Deer College’s new baseball team.

Last November, rdnewsNOW reported that the RDC Royals intramural program — a tier separate from RDC Athletics — was attempting to enter the Canadian College Baseball Conference.

Brant Stickel, who was recently named head coach, says final approval from the league should come in May. However, there will likely be delays.

“With everything going on, we’re going to try and form a roster for the fall,” he says, noting they would play exhibition games to start with versus the St. Joseph Academy, or academies in Vauxhall, Veteran, Calgary and Edmonton.

The CCBC season typically runs through the spring before a World Series event to conclude. The 2020 season has already been cancelled.

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“With the Royals, my ultimate goal is to try and keep some central Alberta talent in central Alberta,” says Stickel, a pitcher by trade who played with the U of C Dinos and LA Dodgers minor-league programs.

“Red Deer is a hotbed for baseball right now and I want to get some exposure for these kids while keeping them at RDC and make it a legit baseball program here.”

Stickel, who is also coach for the U18AAA Braves with Red Deer Minor Baseball, says it’s great that the Royals will be able to join the Riggers, St. Joseph Baseball Academy, and the Sylvan Lake Gulls (WCBL) on the local baseball scene.

“I’m so ready to be outside,” he laments. “It’s plus-8 and we should be practicing, but we can’t.”

But the beat goes on, the Veteran, AB native says.

“Right now we do have some interest in the Royals, so I’m trying to recruit the best I can electronically through different associations. We have a bunch of kids in the area who were supposed to be going down south and have committed to colleges who now can’t, so maybe we can get some of them.”

This week, Baseball Alberta announced that its Board of Directors has decided to extend the suspension of all sanctioned Baseball Alberta in-person events until at least June 1.