McFarland: Tight-knit Team Saskatchewan set high bar at Road to Okotoks

Team Saskatchewan. Photo: Scott Savard Photography

*This article was originally published on Saskatchewan Dugout Stories on August 4, 2026. You can read it here.

August 10, 2026

By Joe McFarland

Saskatchewan Dugout Stories

It was one last run with the boys.

Many of the 20 young men who made up the Baseball Sask roster for The Road to Okotoks had the opportunity to be teammates over the last few years.

From suiting up with their respective community teams to joining forces for national tournaments, “tight” only begins to explain how they felt going to Baseball Canada’s inaugural 19U national championship.

Different from the other programs in that this was a provincial team instead of an academy squad, head coach Greg Brons brought many of the same players who went to the 2025 Canada Summer Games in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador.

They embraced the underdog tag that seems to always follow Team Saskatchewan and tried to enjoy their final roadtrip as a group.

“You play against these guys in league but it’s not the same as when you’re all walking out there together to jog the field and everything,” outfielder Trentin Kooy told Saskatchewan Dugout Stories. “The environment, the team … it’s honestly everything to me.”

While the team finished 2-2 in round-robin play and were frustrated in not getting into the playoff rounds on a tiebreaker, they were thankful for the opportunity to come together one more time to take part in the first-ever national tournament.

GREAT FIRST IMPRESSION

Kooy was among the 15 athletes who were first called to represent Saskatchewan at the 2023 Baseball Canada Cup in Laval, Que.

It was there where he first got to really know some future long-time teammates like Mitchell and Casey Rauckman, Reid Olfert, Pryor Dyck and Mason Fauser.

Kooy had played with some of them at Going Yard Academy in Saskatoon, but he says there’s something special about playing in national tournaments.

Team Sask outfielder Trentin Kooy takes part in the Morneau Cup Home Run Derby. Photo: Scott Savard Photography

“Meeting new guys and new teams is probably the best part of it,” said the right-handed slugger. “You get to make new friends for life, so it’s something you can’t complain about, that’s for sure.”

After finishing eighth at that tournament, some of those same players were called back again for the 2024 Baseball Canada Cup, where they improved their performance by capturing fourth place.

BUILDING SOMETHING SPECIAL

Where the vibes really hit another level was in 2025 when many of the players who went to Okotoks were invited to the Canada Summer Games.

Again taking on the role of underdog, Team Sask rode strong hitting and pitching performances to capture the bronze medal.

It proved to the team that they could compete with the supposed “big dogs” around the country.

“Our coaches always tell us that it’s the same game, no matter who is watching or who we’re playing,” said catcher Aiden Kilshaw. “It’s the same fun game, so trust your teammates, do your best, and just go out there and play.”

With many of the players being 17 or 18, they didn’t know if it would be their last chance to all play together, so they soaked in the moments on and off the field.

THE ROAD TO OKOTOKS

The opportunity to get together one more time reared its head with the inaugural Morneau Cup.

Dubbed the “first academy national championship,” Team Sask bucked that trend by getting permission to send a provincial team to the Prairie Qualifiers in Lethbridge and Vauxhall.

They finished 4-0 during the round-robin before falling 9-5 to Vauxhall in the semi-final. With the rest of the qualifier rained out, Sask was one of four teams invited to the main event in Okotoks.

Believing so much in the team he had assembled, and wanting to keep the whole team full of Saskatchewan players, Brons opted not to take anyone in the Morneau Cup Draft despite having the first overall pick.

“I like just having our team that got us here and we did really well in the qualifiers, so I totally agreed with it,” Kilshaw said. “I like all these guys and we play well together.”

THE QUEST FOR A TITLE

Stepping off the bus in Okotoks, infielder Cade Britz says the message from the Team Sask coaching staff was simple.

“Let’s go to war.”

Despite a 5-2 loss to the Mississauga Tigers to start off the round robin, it was a hard-nosed affair that sent a message to the rest of the teams that they weren’t going to be a push-over.

They followed that up with a heartbreaking 1-0 loss to the Abbotsford Cardinals, where the only mistake on Mitchell Rauckman’s great day on the hill was a solo homer given up to Ryland Peters.

Sask then returned the favour with a 1-0 nailbiter over the UBC Thunder, where Britz won it with a walk-off walk while Pryor Dyck struck out seven in a complete-game three-hitter.

They wrapped up the round-robin with a convincing 16-0 mercy win over the Ontario Terriers, who were not in their pool. Rhett Anderson hit a home run while four players had two RBIs in what they called a “complete team win.”

With every program in Pool B finishing with a 2-2 record, the tiebreaker came down to how each did within their pool, leaving Sask on the outside looking in.

While obviously disappointed and frustrated that they couldn’t pull out another win in the first two games, the players took it all in stride.

“We’re just trying to have some fun and enjoy the time we have together around the park and at the hotel,” Kooy said after he took part in the tournament’s Home Run Derby.

“I don’t think anyone’s too mad. We just wish we could have hit a little better, but that’s how it is and there’s nothing we can do about it now, so just move on.”

Team Sask finished the tournament with an 8-5 win in a placement game against the DT Selects out of Quebec.

SETTING THE STANDARD

With their high school careers now over, many of the players are now embarking on the next steps of their respective journeys.

Kooy is heading to Crowder Community College, Kilshaw has committed to Blinn Community College, and the Rauckman brothers will go their separate ways with Mitchell to North Dakota State University and Casey to Southwestern Illinois Junior College, among others.

Each says they will take the memories they created as a team with them forever.

“We’ve always been very close and lots of us grew up together,” said Dyck, who is uncommitted and is coming off being named the Saskatchewan Premier Baseball League Pitcher of the Year. “We grew up playing baseball together so, yeah, we’re a pretty tight group.”

And as much as they wanted to bring home a medal from The Road to Okotoks, Kooy says they successfully made their mark and set the expectations high for the next teams from Saskatchewan.

“In 10 years, we will be able to say we were the first ones,” he said. “It’s the first step to what can be the new future and it’s kind of the building block. To be a part of that is so awesome.”