January 26, 2024

By Melissa Verge

Canadian Baseball Network

Her passion is demonstrated through dedication.

Even in a rare moment of spare time during a hectic Minor League Baseball season, Ashley Stephenson is talking baseball.

As the Vancouver Canadians bus travels between cities, a chance for players and staff to relax, for Stephenson, it’s the perfect opportunity to devote more time to the game. The Canadians coach is in her seat, headphones on, logged into a zoom call with the Women’s National Team ahead of the World Cup.

It’s that dedication to the sport that helped land her in her current position as second female coach in Blue Jays history with the High-A affiliate Canadians.

She’s always put extensive energy into making her goals a reality, she said. First as a longtime player donning the red and white for Canada with the Women's National Team, and then becoming the first woman to manage the team in 2022.

“I like to think that I was always going to be someone who really tries to push boundaries and tries to make things happen in whatever I want to do,” she said. “I don’t want to be mediocre at things, I want to be exceptional at things. And sometimes to do that you’ve got to take scary steps.”

Steps like walking places that haven’t been walked by many women before her - including into many facilities that still aren’t equipped for women to be there. Many minor league facilities still didn’t have a female locker room, Stephenson said. This led to some unideal situations during the season, including sharing with people from the opposing team, and at another point she was put into an RV with two other Canadians staff. There are currently changes being implemented for inclusivity in stadiums, with the new standards mandating a locker room for women.

It’s hiccups in an incredible season, she said, that saw her and the Canadians win the 2023 Northwest League Championship. She was primarily working with outfielders throughout the summer, she said, helping improve their skills, but she also had an impact off the field.

At the end of the year, one player said something that stuck with her, she said. It was his first time playing for a female coach, and he told her if he had a daughter one day, he would like to tell her about Stephenson, with the message being that his daughter can do whatever she wants to.

“So that was kind of cool,” she said.

In between her duties with Vancouver, whenever she was able to (often on the bus) she would join the Women’s National Team zoom calls. Helping players and staff, and ultimately the program to be successful has always been important to her, she said. Her new role as a coach in pro ball didn’t change that. She’s been a key part of it since its inception in 2004, and she’ll be bringing back more knowledge after her season with Vancouver. She’s returning as a coach for the World Cup on home soil in Thunder Bay from July 28 to August 3.

The way that the Canadians pre-scout pitchers and hitters will be useful in certain tendencies that they look out for moving forward, she said.

“That's another reason I really wanted to get back to the program,” she said. “I thought that the things I had learned could really help our program, help our players continue to develop.”

Although it hasn’t been exactly a relaxing off-season for Stephenson, it’s been spent the way she enjoys - and the same way she spent the regular season - coaching. She returned to her job as a teacher in Burlington after the season wrapped up, and straight into coaching field hockey. That’s been followed by coaching the boys hockey team, who’s end of season she’ll miss, as she has other obligations.

It’s a whirlwind of exams and marking before she flies out for Spring Training February 11 to start season number two coaching with the Canadians.

For girls who see her on the field and are interested in making baseball their career, passion and tenacity are important, she said.

“I always loved it so I just kept going,” she said.

“I've had a career that I didn't even know was possible to have, so yeah, just keep going. But stay in it for all the right reasons. Stay in it because you love it, and I think good things will happen.”