Wilson: WCBL to showcase teams to young talent during Road to Okotoks

Photo: Baseball Canada

*This article was originally published on the Western Canadian Baseball League website on December 10. You can read it here.

December 13, 2025

By Ian Wilson

Western Canadian Baseball League

Budding baseball talent will cross paths with all that the Western Canadian Baseball League has to offer in southern Alberta next year.

The meeting of the WCBL and the top young ball players from across Canada will take place thanks to The Road to Okotoks, a national championship tournament set to happen at the Seaman Stadium Complex from July 14-19 in 2026.

The Baseball Canada event will feature 16 amateur academy teams - with rosters of players who are 19 years old or younger - competing against each other for the right to hoist the Morneau Cup, a trophy named after Canadian Baseball Hall of Famer Justin Morneau.

Hosted by the Okotoks Dawgs, who operate an academy program and a summer collegiate team in the WCBL, the path to the championship will begin with regional qualifiers, which take place from May 28 to May 31.

There are eight sites for the qualifying games, including Woodstock, Oakville, Mississauga and Scarborough in Ontario, and White Rock and Langley in British Columbia. The Alberta qualifiers are happening in Vauxhall and Lethbridge.

"The Road to Okotoks is going to be prime territory for the franchises in the WCBL to see up and coming Canadian talent that should consider our league for bettering themselves in upcoming summers," said WCBL President Kevin Kvame.

"Baseball Canada has embarked on a new era for consolidating Canadian baseball talent during the cross-country qualifiers, which will be so competitive as teams vie for a position to showcase in front of the country in Okotoks in July."

Added Kvame: "The WCBL is excited to play a role in showcasing our league to these athletes this summer with league games set for Lethbridge at the Prairie qualifier and at Okotoks during the National Championship."

The Lethbridge Bulls host the Brooks Bombers at Spitz Stadium on May 28 and the Swift Current 57's on May 29. This will provide an opportunity for qualifier competitors to see WCBL games live and in person. Athletes who advance to the final tournament in Okotoks will also be able to watch the Dawgs host the Medicine Hat Mavericks for a Seaman Stadium matinee on July 14, as well as an evening contest against the Bulls on July 18.

"There's a lot of excitement around the event as a whole, and the Dawgs hosting it, and I think it's going to be a lot of fun," said Tyler Hollick, the general manager with the Okotoks Dawgs.

"It's just going to be a celebration of the top Canadian programs and top Canadian players, the future of Canadian baseball right here in Okotoks."

Hollick said The Road to Okotoks will allow high school players and coaches to get a closer look at the WCBL, including the facilities, the teams and the game-day experience.

"Before we started anything, it was a big deal for the WCBL to be showcased in front of 16 of the most premier programs in the country," Hollick told Alberta Dugout Stories: The Podcast.

"Where the future of Canadian baseball, before these guys are going off to college, they can see Canada's premier summer league in the Western Canadian Baseball League, watching a high-level college baseball game with all the amenities going, the music and the crowd, and really enjoy that. That's what the week's going to be centred around."

Morneau, who won the 2006 American League MVP award as a member of the Minnesota Twins, said the national championship is also expected to be a magnet for baseball scouts.

"Being able to hopefully have all the scouts - whether it's college recruiters or whether it's Major League Baseball scouts - seeing we've got all the best players in the country coming together, and maybe they overlooked somebody in the draft or maybe somebody had some growth in the spring and they didn't get a chance to see him, it's not exclusively just for the tournament itself. It is an opportunity to showcase yourself in a team environment, because I think that's important," said Morneau.

Team registration for The Road to Okotoks opened in early November and ticket packages for fans are also available, including full tournament passes and daily passes.