Left to right: WCBL president Kevin Kvame, managing director of corporate partnerships Mark Stiles, Oyen mayor Doug Jones and Lee Tucker, Town of Oyen recreation director, at the announcement for the Western Canadian Baseball League’s first Rural Roots Baseball Classic, which will take place on June 8. Photo: Ian Wilson

March 14, 2025

Official Western Canadian Baseball League News Release

The Western Canadian Baseball League is returning to its roots this summer.

With the inaugural Rural Roots Baseball Classic, the WCBL will pay homage to its history and championship spirit.

The highlight of the weekend will be a regular-season game between the Lethbridge Bulls and Sylvan Lake Gulls at Doug Lehman Field in Oyen, Alta. First pitch is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. on Sunday, June 8.

Oyen was selected as the first host of the Rural Roots Baseball Classic - which is set to become an annual tradition - in celebration of the Oyen Pronghorns championship season in the Saskatchewan Major Baseball League (SMBL) in 1995.

"We are very excited for the Rural Roots Baseball Classic. This is our version of Major League Baseball's Field of Dreams game that they hold in Iowa," said WCBL president Kevin Kvame.

"We're going to try to move it around each year to a historical baseball location in our footprint and put on a regular-season WCBL game with two of our franchises. We're excited to start in Oyen with a big community festival that will salute the Pronghorns."

The Pronghorns became the first team from Alberta to win a title in the SMBL and opened the door for the Lethbridge Bulls to join the league in 1999, transforming the circuit to the Western Major Baseball League (WMBL) in 2002 until it was rebranded into the current WCBL in 2018. The Pronghorns helped elevate the league into a two-province entity that represented the growing baseball communities of Alberta and Saskatchewan.

TEAM TIES

Several ties between the Pronghorns, Bulls and Gulls exist to this day.

Aqil Samuel, the president of the Sylvan Lake Gulls, had the first at bat for the Pronghorns when they joined the SMBL.

"My two summers in Oyen were great. I was still in high school but got a chance to play in the Saskatchewan Major Baseball League. Oyen actually became a bit of a second home for me for years, and I still have some great friends in the area. To be part of this league all these years later is pretty special and I can't wait to go back," said Samuel.

"Bringing the Gulls back to Oyen to play the Bulls is going to be fun. Oyen is such a baseball town ... it is going to be a great atmosphere and I know it is going to be well supported by the entire community."

Graham Schetzsel - the founder & CEO of the Gulls - played first base on the 1995 championship team alongside Todd Hubka, who was the first head coach of the Lethbridge Bulls. Hubka continues to coach the Prairie Baseball Academy (PBA) in Lethbridge, which feeds a number of players to the WCBL every year.

Oyen Mayor Doug Jones is a past-president of the WCBL and member of the Alberta Sports Hall of Fame who helped establish the Badlands Baseball Academy in the town of 900 people. He also helped current WCBL president Kevin Kvame bring the Bulls into the league in 1999.

"We're very excited. It's going to be the first Rural Roots game and we're going back into history with this. We're going to have a great weekend," said Jones.

WEEKEND ACTIVITIES

The game between the Gulls and Bulls will help celebrate the contribution of the Oyen Pronghorns to the WCBL and it will also include a full slate of weekend activities.

Planned events include a golf tournament, barbeque, beer gardens, pancake breakfast, youth baseball camp and a 30th reunion of the '95 Pronghorns team. Along with the signature Rural Roots Baseball Classic game between the Gulls and Bulls, there is a 13U game scheduled for a team from Oyen and one from Lethbridge. Many more festivities - which will be announced at a later date - are sure to make Oyen the place to be in early June.

ABOUT THE RURAL ROOTS BASEBALL CLASSIC

Baseball has lived on the Canadian Prairies for well over a century. The sport is a regular and beloved feature of our summers. The seeds for a field of dreams were planted in Western Canada long before they grew in the hearts of baseball fans around the world.

It is more than a game. Baseball is a feeling. It is a vibe. It offers a soundtrack to our sun-soaked days outside. The bounty from this magical harvest can be found in the 12-team Western Canadian Baseball League, which offers Alberta and Saskatchewan the nation's highest level of summer collegiate baseball.

The WCBL is proud to present the Rural Roots Baseball Classic to our fans. The annual game - part of a full weekend of festival activities - is a celebration of the towns and cities that served as pioneers for the game. We are thrilled to be coming to a community that represents this history for our inaugural game in Oyen, Alberta. Located between Calgary and Saskatoon near the Alberta/Saskatchewan border, Oyen is one of these storied baseball towns.

Prairie communities offered humble beginnings to baseball in the form of dirt diamonds and gopher-hole-punched outfields. They welcomed barnstorming baseball stars to town to dazzle and inspire the locals, who responded by embracing every aspect of the game. The players accepted the assignment of getting their uniforms dirty, their throwing arms strong, their swings fast, and their grins wide. They learned the fundamentals, and hard work was rewarded, both in life and at the ballpark. Today, we can look back proudly at what these communities did to elevate baseball. We can bear witness to the growth of the game and the towns. We can also peer to the horizon and smile as we squint to see the outline of a bat over a shoulder and a small dot racing skyward as a gloved form darts toward it below. This is baseball as it was originally created, while becoming not only America's pastime but Canada's as well. Simple. Beautiful. Timeless. Welcome home, to the Rural Roots Baseball Classic!

GET TICKETS NOW

Tickets for the Rural Roots Baseball Classic are available through the Lethbridge Bulls website.

The Bulls will officially be the home team for the game against the Sylvan Lake Gulls. The game starts at 3:30 p.m. on Sunday, June 8 at Doug Lehman Field.