February 15, 2024

By Melissa Verge

Canadian Baseball Network

Young, driven, with a talent for baseball.

All 15-year-old Stosh Wawrzasek needs is someone to believe in him, and Langley Blaze GM and founder Doug Mathieson helps instill that confidence.

“He was the one who saw something in me,” Wawrzasek said. “I always enjoyed the game of baseball but it was more so he really pushed me, and made me see that, ‘hey you have something here.’”

Mathieson was right - he did have something. The 6-foot-1 right-hander suited up for the Langley Blaze, an elite high school team in the B.C. Premier Baseball League, from 2005 to 2008, when he was drafted by the Milwaukee Brewers in the 16th round.

“Next thing you know your names being called on the draft board, [you’re] signing documents and the next thing you know you’re getting paid to throw a baseball,” he said.

The Burnaby, B.C., native spent five years playing in the minors, winning two championship rings - one with the Helena Brewers of the Rookie ball Pioneer League in 2010 and another with the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers, of the class-A Midwest League, in 2012.

Years went by - 16 to be exact - but he didn’t forget where it started for him in Langley. Throughout the years he kept in touch with Mathieson, who said the door was always open for him to return.

He’s since joined the coaching staff, helping young players whose exact position he was once in to achieve their dreams. He’s one of many former professional players who round out the Blaze coaching staff.

Kyle Lotzkar (Delta, B.C.), who was drafted 53rd overall by the Cincinnati Reds from the Blaze in 2007, has also returned to help out with the B.C. team he once played for.

Injuries impacted Lotzkar throughout his career, and injury prevention is now the main driver of his teachings to young Blaze athletes. His career spanned seven years in pro ball, including an impressive performance at the MLB Futures Game in 2012 where he pitched a scoreless inning. He had to have Tommy John Surgery, and he broke his elbow, which cut short his 2008 season. The recovery from a screw that had to be inserted cost him his 2009 season and part of 2010.

“How do you stay healthy and also how do you keep your arm feeling good as a pitcher?” Lotzkar said.

“I try to teach them to be efficient with their mechanics so they’re putting less stress on their body with their recovery, with their mobility and then with their lifting.”

He learned too late in his career how to properly use the weight room, he said, and now it’s an important tool he also teaches young pitchers.

It prolonged his career, he said, and if they can start using it properly now, it’s only going to benefit them if they progress to college and pro ball.

However, it takes more than the weight room and the work the players put in with the Blaze coaches to be successful.

The effort the athletes put in solo is what really sets them up for success, said Dennis Springenatic, who joined the Blaze coaching staff last year. He reflects back on his own life experience in the advice he gives to players - times he could’ve taken more swings in the batting cage, and just spent more time in general perfecting his game.

“When you’re that close to making it, there’s always times that you could’ve been doing more – do more,” Springenatic said. “And it's not always showing up to the baseball park, it's doing more on your own.”

He played for Canada at the Pan Am Games in 1987 and spent more than two decades working in the BC Premier Baseball League with the Whalley Chiefs. He’s had many draft picks in his time coaching, including three first rounders. One of those was Adam Loewen (Surrey, B.C.), the highest Canadian-born player ever drafted.

Before Loewen was selected by the Baltimore Orioles in 2002, Pat Gillick, former GM of the Toronto Blue Jays during their back-to-back World Series wins in 1992 and 1993, called up Springenatic. He had insight on the athlete, having coached him in his Grade 10, 11 and 12 years. He wanted to know what kind of kid Loewen was, Springenatic said. Everyone knew the kind of player he was, but the kind of person he was off the field was also important. So he filled him in on Loewen, an interaction he looks back on as a highlight in his coaching career, and Loewen ended up signing with the Orioles for $3.2 million.

Springenatic’s own dream was to play in the big leagues, and when that didn’t quite work out, he wanted to stay involved with the game. Coaching for 28 years helping talented athletes succeed has been the way he’s been able to do that.

“It was just a passion of mine to see kids take it as far as they possibly can and push them as hard as I could to achieve that,” he said.

Ken Myette, who played in the Cincinnati Reds organization in 1969 and 1970, is still coaching for the Langley Blaze.

Coaching baseball is also a lifelong love for Langley coach Ken Myette (Penticton, B.C.). The 76-year-old played professionally from 1966 to 1970 in the minor leagues, and joined the Blaze in 2023. He brings more than 50 years of experience coaching the sport to the staff.

The game has changed significantly over the years he’s been involved, Myette said, and it’s that change that has continued to keep him interested in coaching.

“The availability of information through the internet and just knowledge with all the biomechanical things, analytics and all that sort of thing [has advanced]” he said.

Myette primarily specializes in pitchers with the team, helping players get to the next level, and stay healthy while doing so.

Wawrzasek, Lotzkar, Springenatic and Myette - it’s a stellar coaching staff.

But talented coaching staff aside, it’s really the exposure that players can receive from playing on the Blaze that makes the program so special, Lotzkar said, who was drafted out of the program in 2007.

“There's no other team in B.C. or in Canada really that can provide high school level baseball players that are ready to be exposed to schools in the states or professional baseball teams, the level of exposure that the Blaze can,” he said.

“[Mathieson] he's just super well connected in professional baseball, and it's a pretty special team in that sense.”

The Blaze will embark on their annual spring pro tour to various cities in Arizona from March 16 to March 26. They will compete against top talent, and showcase top Canadian talent south of the border.