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Surrey Canadian celebrates 50 baseball seasons with big new mural

Registration is underway for the 2025 spring season, which opens April 6
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The Surrey Canadians 15U Bantam A team at the 15U provincials tournament in Kelowna in August 2024.

A huge new mural at a Surrey park celebrates 50 seasons of baseball for Surrey Canadian and also the legacy of an association volunteer member who died three years ago.

Completed in November, Andrew McGuire's colourful art is painted on a wall below the concession at Lionel Courchene Park in Guildford, home to the minor baseball organization since 1976.

The 52-foot-long mural will be officially unveiled April 6, opening day for spring ball.

"We will do something very special that day," said David Leavers, a vice-president of Surrey Canadian (SCBA). "We're inviting all past members of the organization including players, coaches, past board and executive members, and the mayor and council are always invited," he added.

"That day will kick things off (for) our 50th anniversary, which will be incorporated into everything we do this year. That includes hosting the Kathy Thomas Memorial Tournament on Victoria Day weekend, and we host the Steven Dodd Memorial Tournament on Canada Day weekend every year to kick off the summer season."

The history of the four-diamond Lionel Courchene Park includes involvement from the Courchene family and many community volunteers, the City of Surrey and the volunteer-run SCBA.

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The 52-foot mural painted by Andrew McGuire at Lionel Courchene Park in Surrey celebrates the 50th season of Surrey Canadian Baseball Association. Photo: bookanartist.co/artist/artist-for-hire/2209

The new mural was commissioned a couple years ago, thanks to a legacy endowment fund created in memory of Caroline Schellekens, an executive member of the baseball association. She also helped manage teams that involved her son Kyle and husband Craig Joncas, who coached. At age 53, Schellekens died in April 2022 after a two-year battle with lung cancer.

"Through that (SurreyCares) legacy fund we raised $10,000 to do something in the park to not only commemorate her and her work with the organization, but to celebrate the park," Leavers explained.

"Nowhere on the mural does it say 'Surrey Canadian 50th anniversary' or provide a commemoration of Caroline, but it's a celebration of 50 years of baseball at the park. It's really well done. We installed a couple of commemorative benches outside the concession area, too."

With a North Surrey catchment, Surrey Canadian is the BC Baseball and Baseball Canada affiliate for the Guildford/Fleetwood area of Surrey. Registration is underway for the 2025 spring season on surreycanadian.com/2025-spring-season, for girls and boys aged four to 18, games April to June. Reduced "early bird" fees are in place until Jan. 31.

This spring, SCBA uniforms will include a new 50th-season Surrey Canadian logo.

Association president Rob McKay urges more players and families to get involved this season, to "discover the benefits of having their kids participate in a sport that promotes physical and mental health, social development, emotional growth, life skills and family and community involvement, all while having fun with their teammates and families all season.”  

Additional volunteers are needed to help out with the new season, too.

Come April, Surrey Canadian's goal is to have 200 kids signed up to play ball on various teams, including some merged with other nearby associations.

"We're certainly a smaller organization compared to the Cloverdales and Ridge Meadows of the world, but we really like that we can offer a smaller group of people as quality a program as we can, and we have a dedicated group of volunteers that makes sure that happens every year," Leavers said.

The association are excited about growth coming within the SCBA catchment area, he said.

"There's a new Tynehead-Anniedale community plan that is suggesting 30,000 people might move into into our catchment in the next 10 years. We're hopeful that development will help us," Leavers said.

"We've struggled for a number of years because our catchment hasn't really grown and It's transitioned, and a lot of the new families that have moved into our catchment haven't been families that are really familiar with the sport of baseball, so we're hoping that more people in our catchment will lead to more demand for the sport."

The SCBA shares a catchment with Whalley Little League. Elsewhere, the three other minor baseball associations in Surrey are Newton Canadian, Cloverdale and South Surrey-White Rock. The Newton and Cloverdale organizations recently announced plans to merge programs

Meantime, Surrey Canadian awaits confirmation from BC Minor Baseball regarding its application to host a provincial championship this year, Leavers added. "We've applied for the Peewee single-A provincial championships, and that will always take place in early August."

 

 

 

 



Tom Zillich

About the Author: Tom Zillich

I cover entertainment, sports and news for Surrey Now-Leader and Black Press Media
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