May 14, 2020

By Benjamin Steiner

Canadian Baseball Network

Vancouver, BC - On a walk in Stratford Ontario, Jaxon Valcke joins me on the phone, he’s not where he wants to be. In a pandemic-less world, the UBC baseball player would be preparing to play summer ball with the Victoria Harbourcats, but that’s not happening.

Earlier this week, the Victoria ball-club, along with four other members of the West Coast Baseball League pulled out of the 2020 season due to local health regulations regarding COVID-19. The season may go-ahead for the remaining teams, but it was not viable for the Harbourcats to continue to forge their way through the unknown. Like many Canadians, it leaves Valcke without summer plans.

Looking back at the last 12 months, Valcke has had a lot of memorable experiences. He was part of the Okotoks Dawgs championship-winning team last summer, he played for UBC in an international tournament that featured teams from the USA and Japan and he’s even one of the few players who got the chance to play in 2020.

As the pandemic began to take over the world, the Thunderbirds were already well into their 2020 NAIA season.

“We had started off really well and we were about to go down to Georgia to play some top teams,” said the infielder before going onto re-live how the pandemic shut down the NAIA.

“Our coaches sort of disappeared for a bit and then came back and told us that we didn’t have to go on the trip if we were worried.”

All that proved to be trivial, as days later, the NAIA suspended their season. “We are a few of the lucky ones, I know a lot of guys won’t get to play this year,” said Valcke.

Although Valcke got a hint of 2020 baseball, the cancellation of Victoria’s season is still crushing.

“After winning with Okotoks last year, I was really looking forward to testing myself at the next level.”

It’s a 360-degree turn from last year where he played nearly 120 games, the
most of his young career.

The 2019 summer in Okotoks only made him more excited about hitting the field in Victoria.

“Everyone there really gets around the team, it’s pretty cool to have that and I’ve heard Victoria is the same.”

A summer with the Harbourcats would have exposed him to a minor league like schedule for the first time, something that would have continued his acclimatization to baseball’s higher levels.

The combination of the Victoria crowd, an elevated level of competition and a minor league environment were just a few of the things that made the coming summer so tantalizing. In a normal year, the next few months could have paved the way towards a successful senior UBC year and potentially pro baseball.

Although the summer collegiate season is no longer on the books, the UBC junior is already looking forward to what’s to come, turning his focus to next season with the Thunderbirds.

It was only last week that the heavy-hitting left-hander returned home. He stayed in Vancouver to finish the school year, even after in-person classes were halted with hopes of heading over to Victoria. However, with the cancellation of the summer season, he hopped onto the Trans-Canada Highway and drove east.

“I guess I’m finally getting a bit of a break now,” he said, describing that he had continued to train with a couple of his roommates in Vancouver.

“Right after it happened, we stayed out on campus. We could still throw together, we could still
hit a little bit, it was good weather [in Vancouver] so it was OK.”

Being back home with no baseball in the near future, he’s expecting himself to pick up some new hobbies and maybe some other outdoor activities to keep him occupied, but he’s not totally sure what the next few months hold.

His sister, Mia Valcke, is a member of UBC’s softball team and with both back home, he said they’ll definitely be training together throughout the summer, something to keep them sharp before hopefully returning to UBC in the fall.

With the Harbourcats season gone and the ever-diminishing possibility of minor league baseball, Valcke and the UBC Thunderbirds have to consider themselves lucky, they are part of a small group that got to run the bases this season.

If Victoria had been able to hit the diamond this year, they would have boasted a roster of players from UBC, as well as other top schools such as San Diego, Illinois State, and Texas. It is certainly not the situation that anyone wanted to be in, but public health takes priority, something Valcke and others certainly understand.