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They say every good party ends up in the kitchen.

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5 years ago

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Well, baseball is a party, and in Nanaimo the gathering spot was the big wood stove down the hall from Kent’s Kitchen where former players, coaches, officials, volunteers and fans would all congregate.

The stove was the centrepiece of the Hall Of Fame Room in the bowels of Serauxmen Stadium. That stove is due to be rolled out the door this spring to make way for a new kind of baseball party – the Nanaimo NightOwls Baseball Club of the West Coast League, and the new team’s office space.

It was not sadness that trailed after that symbol of warmth and camaraderie, however. All those same players, coaches, officials, volunteers and fans had worked hard to someday attract a WCL team to their city so to see the space repurposed for such high-calibre ball was a treat, not a gripe.

“We’d have all these old guys come in and just B.S. about baseball,” said Kent Malpass, the man for whom the kitchen was unofficially named. He was one of the young guys who cozied up to that fire, when it first got kindled, and now he is the godfather of these goodfellas.

“If that room had ears, it would have lots of things to talk about. So many great people have worked to keep baseball in Nanaimo going and growing, and a lot of them ended up in that room having those conversations. So many of them have passed on now, great names, great people. Some are in a home now. That’s the way time works. And we’re in the middle of Covid and when that hit, it really shut it all down anyway.”

It was always Thursday morning that the regular gathering would happen, whether there was a ball game on that day or not.

“I’d get there at seven o’clock, and sometimes there were already people waiting to get in,” Malpass said. “They’d show up at 7:30, 8:00, trickling in, but there would often be a dozen of us just here for the conversation and seeing each other, talking about baseball and life.”

The big stove was never the point of these visits, but it was always the unspoken host. Even when there was a lull in the conversation, the crackle of the wood fire would evoke the crack of the bat.

“It’s a big stove. Huge,” Malpass said. “I’ve put wood in that thing at three o’clock in the afternoon and come back at 11 or 12 o’clock the next day and it would still be going.”

Kent and his Serauxmen Service Club members are much the same way. The Nanaimo charity group formed in 1967 over some beers and centennial cheers at the Tally Ho Pub. To this day, it is going strong and Nanaimo is its one and only chapter. They raise tens of thousands of dollars a year for all-local causes. They also pour tens of thousands of dollars worth of in-kind contributions and volunteerism into their community, and baseball is one of their chief loves.

Baseball brings people together, said Malpass, and baseball never ceases to draw in new people but never let go of anyone as they age. It’s something that grows with you no matter who you are or where you are, he said.

When Nanaimo seemed set to take a step up in the baseball world, back in the 1970s, Malpass and the Serauxmen were gleeful. Their club’s name is on the stadium because they took it upon themselves to lead the fundraising and logistics efforts to convert the former coal mine site into a ballpark that is still one of the best in B.C.

It opened in 1976 with a slate of celebrities on-site to throw the first pitches and cut all the ribbons. Malpass still glows at the memory of the top name on that fundraising ticket: the legendary superstar Mickey Mantle. Joining the Yankee Comet was another golden name from baseball’s history, Red Sox Gold-Glover and two-time all-star Jim Piersall.

“We took them fishing and showed them a good time,” said Malpass. “It cost the Serauxmen $5,000 to bring them in, which was a lot of money in 1976, but it worked really well. The place was packed.”

But that wasn’t the end of the Serauxmen commitment to Nanaimo baseball.

“Doug Rogers started the Nanaimo Pirates (of the BC Premier Baseball League) so his brother Danny and I used to do the equipment,” Malpass said, and that volunteer effort carried over into the whole youth baseball league where they would outfit up to 800 kids each year with uniforms, belts, helmets, socks, the whole kit. He would go on buying trips that needed a truck. “It was like Christmas for us, but everything was for the kids.”

A lot of the equipment distribution happened in that same room that eventually became the meeting space.

Malpass wore a lot of different volunteer caps over the years. He would paint the weathered spots on the fence, fix the broken boards on the bleachers, sweep the spilled popcorn, and he was a fixture in the concession kitchen. He grew up in the grocery industry and cooked in restaurants so this was his wheelhouse, but he also sold furniture, assembled satellite antennae, and other career moves that he always turned into a baseball double-play.

“I just love being at the stadium, being around baseball, being with baseball people, it’s a special thing,” he said. He pointed to the example of his friend Burt Lansdale who passed away and wanted his ashes scattered on the pitcher’s mound at the stadium. As the ceremony was going on, as the congregation bowed their heads in prayer, the automatic sprinklers suddenly popped on without warning. Malpass chuckled that even the stadium itself wanted to pay respects to someone who loved being there so much.

“People have a connection to this sport, because it’s more than a sport,” he said.

“Look at what Jim’s done (NightOwls General Manager Jim Swanson) with the team. The Owls were a team in Nanaimo in the 1920s which is where he dug up the name. It’s paying respect, it’s embracing tradition even when you’re doing something new.”

Malpass is excited to see the new team, the new league, and the new level of baseball Nanaimo has grown to embrace. He feels he, his friends, his neighbours, and the Serauxmen club members all had a hand in earning it. He’ll gladly sacrifice more volunteer time and work on the home stadium to make it happen. It’ll keep him as warm as any wood stove whose time has now passed.

That stove is not going to the scrap heap, though. Like the Owls name, it is just changing its context. The stove was a popular item for buildings that still could use that crackling heat, and it will be finding a home that will be fully aware of the history that comes with it.

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Summer Collegiate

Victoria HarbourCats – Hello, Collegiate Cats! Name change planned for Victoria’s fall-spring college baseball team

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1 day ago

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February 17, 2026

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Members of the Victoria Golden Tide, soon to be called the “Victoria Collegiate Cats” pose in their Collegiate Cats gear at the HarbourCats offices.

For immediate release

February 17, 2026

VICTORIA, BC — In name only, the ‘Golden Tide’ tenure is coming to an end — so a stronger age of Victoria collegiate baseball can take root.

Welcome, the Victoria Collegiate Cats, fully embracing the HarbourCats logo and branding as of the fall season — caps, uniforms, workout gear, and mission statement to develop great baseball players and young men in a winning environment. Same program, even stronger connection to the parent club.

The city’s entry in the Canadian College Baseball Conference (CCBC) will play as the Golden Tide for this spring campaign, which starts in just over a month. The team, which provides an outstanding collegiate baseball and academic experience for UVic and Camosun students, where they can stay at home, play in a great stadium (Wilson’s Group Stadium at Royal Athletic Park) in a tremendous city, with the best weather in Canada, and get a world-class degree over five years of athletic eligibility, began as the Victoria Golden Tide in the fall of 2021.

Five years as the Golden Tide included some strong results, including a second place finish in May of 2023, a Cinderella run to the final of the CCBC World Series in Lethbridge.

“It just makes sense for many reasons, as the program has improved and grown beyond early challenges, to be fully adopted under the respected HarbourCats name,” said Jim Swanson, Managing Partner of the group that owns the HarbourCats of the West Coast League, the Collegiate Cats, and the Nanaimo NightOwls (also WCL). “Among other bonuses, so many Golden Tide players have earned summer WCL opportunities through this program, and that can only continue to increase with the foundation being firmly entrenched in this name shift as well.

“In hindsight, this should have been the naming from the beginning. Moving forward, the players and coaches and new recruits are excited for the transition.”

The HarbourCats front office, led by Swanson, GM Christian Stewart and VP-Operations Adrian Somers, supports the now-Collegiate Cats coaching staff of head coach Chris Vlaj, and assistants Darius Opdam Bak and Colton O’Brien — in fact, Opdam Bak and O’Brien have themselves taken to the field as HarbourCats.

The Collegiate Cats coaches will continue to have the support and mentorship as well of all coaches with both the WCL HarbourCats and NightOwls.

Over the four completed seasons, more than 20 players in good standing with the Golden Tide have earned opportunities to play with either of the Island’s WCL clubs, some in regular season and playoffs (such as team leader and catcher Jai Berezowski, and slugger Ryan Deagle), or in exhibition games. That number will grow this summer.

The list:

OF Jaxson Cordle
RHP Brett Paterson
RHP Nate Major
C Jai Berezowski
OF Dominic Biello
IF Jordan Bond
RHP Darius Opdam Bak
OF Colton O’Brien
RHP Peter Cunningham
C Damian Cataldo
IF Thomas Plant
IF Ryan Deagle
LHP Ethan Dean
RHP Jakin Rohne
OF/RHP Travis Harfield
IF Nick Lee
IF Brandon Green
RHP Haldon Craig
OF Daniel Sawchyn
OF Tyler Burton
RHP Owen Luchies
RHP Cam Dunn
LHP Jacob Popadynec

The Golden Tide start their 2026 schedule on the road at Thompson Rivers University with a four-game set March 21-22 and then return for their home opener on Saturday March 28th at 1:00pm at Wilsons Group Stadium against the Edmonton Collegiate Riverhawks.  A second game follows at 4:00pm, with another doubleheader scheduled for Sunday the 29th at 11:00am and 2:00pm.

The full 2026 Golden Tide schedule is found below (Home games in BOLD and at Wilson’s Group Stadium unless otherwise noted):

Sat. March 21 – @Thompson Rivers University, Kamloops, 4:00pm and 7:00pm
Sun. March 22 – @Thompson Rivers University, Kamloops, 11:00am and 2:00pm

Sat. March 28 – vs. Edmonton Collegiate Riverhawks, 1:00pm and 4:00pm
Sun. March 29 – vs. Edmonton Collegiate Riverhawks, 11:00am and 2:00pm

Thu. April 2 – vs. Okanagan College Coyotes, 2:00pm and 5:00pm
Fri. April 3 – vs Okanagan College Coyotes, 10:00am and 1:00pm

Tue. April 7 – @Vancouver Island University, Nanaimo, 4:00pm and 7:00pm

Fri. April 10 – @Prairie Baseball Academy, Lethbridge, AB, 1:00pm and 4:00pm
Sat. April 11 – @Prairie Baseball Academy, Lethbridge, AB, 2:00pm and 5:00pm

Wed. April 15 – @Vancouver Island University, Nanaimo, 4:00pm and 7:00pm

Mon. April 27 – vs. University of British Columbia @LAMBRICK PARK, 1:00pm and 4:00pm
Tue. April 28 – vs. University of British Columbia @LAMBRICK PARK, 10:00am and 1;00pm

Sat. May 2 – @University of the Fraser Valley, Chilliwack, 4:00pm and 7:00pm
Sun. May 3 – @University of the Fraser Valley, Chilliwack, Noon and 3:00pm

Sat. May 9 – vs. University of Calgary, 4:00pm and 7:00pm
Sun. May 10 – vs. University of Calgary, 11:00am and 2:00pm

Sat. May 16 – vs. University of British Columbia, 1:00pm and 4:00pm

Sun. May 17 – @Vancouver Island University, Nanamio, 4:00pm and 7:00pm

Wed. May 20-Mon. May 25 – CCBC World Series, Lethbridge, AB – Top six teams in regular season play advance.

 

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Victoria HarbourCats – Shepherd returns in 2026 with sights set on new record and more

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6 days ago

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February 13, 2026

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2025 All-Star Logan Shepherd returns in 2026 with his sights set on besting the HarbourCats franchise home run record and bringing a WCL title to Victoria.

By Norm LeBus

The HarbourCats’ designated hitter says he’s breaking the team home record this season. But Logan Shepherd is the first to admit he’s not really trying to.

Batting for long balls is a fool’s errand, he says.

“You’re going to start popping the ball up in the infield or hitting really lazy fly balls,” the 21-year-old Olympia, Washington native says. “Home runs for me are never necessarily on purpose, they’re always sort of an accidental thing.”

Oops – Shepherd went yard in his very first at bat of the ‘Cats home opener last year.

The count was 2-1, he recalls, and he was sitting on a fastball, middle, middle away. That’s the pitch Shepherd hits best, and what he focuses on at the plate.

“Because it’s a lot easier to adjust from a fastball to an off-speed pitch than the other way,” he says. “If you’re not on time ready to hit a fastball, you’re going to foul it off or you’re going to swing and miss. There’s no in between.”

Shepherd made big strides with his bat two years ago. During his first year at Tacoma CC, he lacked the hip rotation that powers explosiveness. In a classic swing, first the hips open (rotate), then the torso and shoulders follow, in concert and in synchronicity. The bat then extends in a slight upward arc at contact.

Shepherd explained that because he lacked hip flexibility, he couldn’t adequately “separate” his lower and upper body and was “falling” into pitches and rotating late.

He spent time with a private baseball company, Driveline, who incorporate data-driven player development through motion capture, force plates and physics to help fine tune a swing.

“They really helped me unlock untapped potential,” Shepherd says. “So that really helped with home run ball projection and all that kind of stuff.”

Last season, Shepherd was the Harbourcats DH; hitting .345 over 40 games with nine doubles and eight home runs (The team record is nine dingers).

Shepherd came to the ‘Cats last season projected as a first baseman. But he admits he was less of a natural at the bag than at bat. As a youth, Shepherd played middle infield. But at Tacoma Community College, he realized a 6-2, 210-pound athlete is not playing second base.

“They kind of threw me to the wolves at Tacoma,” he says. “I didn’t have a whole lot of coaching on that, playing first…so I kind of learned how to play the position by myself.”

Last year in Victoria, the ‘Cats had players with NCAA division one experience at first base, so Shepherd helped where he could.

“I was learning from them (‘Cats first baggers) all the time, but when coach Haney put me in the DH spot, I kind of was able to just focus on what I feel I’m best at, and that’s hitting, he says. “When I was able to lock in and focus on that, that was me making my contribution to the team and doing what I could to help us win.

Shepherd is currently on baseball scholarship at NCAA Division 1 school Mercer College in Macon, Georgia, where he’s been training at first base since last September. The school plays a Southern Conference schedule of 56 games that begins February 13 out of 1,500 seat OrthoGeorgia Park.

“Now that I have a coaching staff that’s been able to get down and work with me on certain positional things, it’s been a lot better,” Shepherd says. “I’ve really developed in the position a lot over that last six months or so, just being here.”

Shepherd is penciled in at first base and batting lead-off or in the three hole, he says. And playing first carries more defensive duties than spitting out sunflower seeds on the bench DH-ing.

“100 percent,” he says. “So I had to work on my flexibility a little bit, and over time that got better; it all goes hand in hand. It not only made me a better first baseman, but a little bit faster, as well.”

As savvy fans realize, first base is a huge responsibility. Infield outs aren’t registered if the first basemen doesn’t have a good stretch – and really good hands.

HarbourCats’ fans will look forward to Shepherd’s return in 2026!

“You always got to be prepared for a bad throw, it’s a lot easier to relax and then just catch it instead of having to react and pick something out,” Shepherd says, “You’re already in a good position to handle that bad throw, no matter how bad it looks.”

So.

Faster, more flexible and coming back to Victoria in June in with a first season at first base at Mercer College.

Sounds like a home run record.

“Home runs for me are never on purpose, they are always kind of an accidental thing,” Shepherd says. “But once you catch it on the sweet spot of the barrel, it doesn’t feel like you’ve hit anything; it’s like you hit a marshmallow. You know you  got it real good.

Harbourcats fans say: sweet.

Shepherd and the HarbourCats begin their 2026 season on May 29th with a visit to Portland and then return to Victoria for the Home Opener against the Edmonton Riverhawks on Tuesday, June 2, 6:30 pm.

Season tickets, single-game tickets, 12 and 32-game flex packs and 2026 All-Star Game ticket packages are now on sale at harbourcats.com/tickets or at the HarbourCats office at 1814 Vancouver Street.

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Hawaiian Pipeline Continues For NightOwls. Seven Players Added To 2026 Roster

Published

7 days ago

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February 12, 2026

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Nanaimo NightOwls fans have truly enjoyed watching great players from Hawaii on the Serauxmen Stadium diamond, and that will again be the case in 2026.

Head Coach Cody Andreychuk is pleased to add seven more players today — four from Hawaii Pacific (Honolulu), including one returning player, along with a Canadian pitcher, a returning catcher who is at a strong D1 school in Texas, and the brother of a 2025 NightOwls infielder.

“We all remember Hawaiian star Elijah Ickes and him being our first drafted player (by the Texas Rangers) — guys from the islands have thrived on our island,” said Managing Partner Jim Swanson. “We have had a strong record with players wanting to play multiple summers for our fans, for our coaching staff and becoming very close with our staff. We are proud of that.”

Announced today by Coach Andreychuk:

LHP Joshua Rego, Hawaii Pacific University, 6-4/175, L/L, Kapa’a, HI

RHP Jayden Gabrillo, Hawaii Pacific, L/R, 5-8/165, Ewa Beach, HI

IF Kyler Shojinaga, Hawaii Pacific, R/R, 5-6/160, Honolulu, HI

OF Ziah Chang, Hawaii Pacific, R/R, 5-10/170, Kahului, HI

RHP Zander Oudie-Senger, Okanagan College, R/R, 6-3/190, Regina, SK

C Clark Springs, University of Texas-Arlington, R/R, 5-11/190, Southlake, TX

OF Aidan Nykoluk, Ventura Community College, R/R, 6-0/195, Simi Valley, CA

Rego is a promising lefty who is making a strong transition to the college level, with upper 80s velocity and a feel for how to pitch — he will develop further under Gorman Heimueller, the fifth-year pitching coach of the NightOwls.

Shojinaga is a slick-fielding freshman who draws comparisons to great Hawaii-groomed shortstops of the past, including Ickes. He will grind out at-bats and get on base for the power bats in the lineup. As both a shortstop and pitcher, he was league MVP in his senior year of high school.

Gabrillo, who can also play infield, returns after a strong summer in Nanaimo in 2025 which put him in a lead pitching role for HPU this spring. He was 1-2 with 13.5 strikeouts per nine innings for the NightOwls last summer.

Chang is a young outfielder known for his defensive game and speed that puts pressure on the basepaths. He stole eight bases in 23 games in a lower level summer league in 2025.

Oudie-Senger has been a top starter for Okanagan College and played four years for his hometown summer team in the WCBL, looking for a more professional experience at the end of his career. An innings-eater, he was a combined 10-3 for Regina,

Springs was part of the strong catching crew for the NightOwls in 2024 and loved the experience — famously driving all the way from his home in Texas to proudly play in Nanaimo. A strong defensive catcher who swings the bat well, he was at top-rated Weatherford College (junior college) before earning a scholarship at UTA. He had a home run and just five strikeouts in 23 games for the NightOwls.

Nykoluk is the brother of Andrew, a senior pitcher who moved to the mound after years as an infielder at HPU. Aidan is off to a great start at Ventura, batting .350, a strong defender with a potent bat.

 

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