Year-round baseball got Schibler going places

By Sean Rooney on November 15, 2018.

Editor’s note: This week we’ve lined up a series of stories looking back at athletes who came through Medicine Hat’s Notre Dame Academy, which is celebrating its 15th anniversary.
Today is a feature on baseball player Austin Schibler. For more names and photos see what Notre Dame’s been posting on Twitter using the hashtag #nda15. Here is Tuesday’s feature on Jesse Florkowski and Wednesday’s on Kale Kessy.

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srooney@medicinehatnews.com @MHNRooney

It’s the time of year when baseball players in Medicine Hat head indoors to work on their skills, which generally means an hour or two a week.

So when Austin Schibler realized he could hit in a batting cage practically every day in junior high, he was more than a bit excited.

“Winters aren’t friendly in Alberta, so the batting cage we had put in really helped us get better,” said Schibler, now in his senior year at Columbia College in Missouri. “No other junior high school is ever going to have a cage in their gym so that people can get better all times of the year.”

Schibler looks back fondly on his middle school days, where he went from a run-of-the-mill hockey player to someone with scholarship potential on the diamond.

It took a lot of hard work but he’s had great experiences with baseball, first at Monsignor McCoy High School, then the Prairie Baseball Academy in Lethbridge and now Columbia.

Topping the charts is the two Canadian college championships he won with PBA.

“Winning two national championships with the Prairie Baseball Academy, that was definitely the highlight,” said Schibler, an infielder who hit over .400 in his last season with PBA. “Then coming here, playing on a great team is a different experience down in the States.

“Different people, people from all over the world you get to come and play around and be with. It’s a good learning experience.”

There is a bit of home with Schibler, however. His roommate at Columbia is Hatter Nolan Rattai. Naturally, you’ve got to wonder if Rattai’s trying to talk Schibler in to playing with the Medicine Hat Mavericks next summer. Rattai and company won the Western Major Baseball League title a couple months ago.

“Definitely it’s in the back of my mind,” Schibler laughed, before noting one major problem. “I’ll be graduating with a bachelor of marketing and minor in accounting. That’ll be coming up at the end of summer, I’ve got to take a couple summer classes.”

The Gas City is never far from Schibler’s mind, however, and he credits Notre Dame baseball coach and teacher Rob McDonnell as a big reason why he’s gone so far with the sport.

Describing himself as a “decent house league player,” Schibler started in the hockey academy at Notre Dame before McDonnell told him he had potential with a different type of lumber.

“Coach McDonnell took me under his wing and said you should probably play baseball,” said Schibler. “I stuck to it, went all the way through high school.”

He notes that the academy atmosphere isn’t for everyone, however.

“In my opinion it’s a great thing to have, but you’ve got to have the time management skills to go there,” he said. “It’s busy, it’s a lot of working out, lots of different activities you’re up to every day. You kind of have to sacrifice an aspect of your life to go into sport and get better at your sport, instead of hanging out with friends or other stuff like that.”

Which is to say the fellow baseball players — the ones making the same sort of commitment — became his friends.

“In a way it makes you work harder, and you get to be around a group of guys the whole time,” said Schibler. “They become part of your family.

“Being in the academy you get lifetime friendships. I don’t know if I’d have that if I went to any other school that didn’t have a program like that.”

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