Mavericks catcher Kristoff Swanson stands in concentration ahead of the Mavericks 9-3 home opener against Moose Jaw on May 29. - NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
The Medicine Hat Mavericks have been together for less than two weeks and are already a close team.
With a mixture of Medicine-Hat-born and returning talent who can show new players the way and the new crop wanting to win, the Mavericks carry an aura of a team that has known each other for years.
Catcher Kristoff Swanson said it’s been amazing and gives the credit for the group being as close as it is to the man in charge.
“From day number one, we clicked and that’s all thanks to (owner/GM) Greg Morrison putting such a great team together and the coaches doing a great job getting us ready.” Swanson said. “We’ve definitely jelled very well and I think that there’s a good chance for us to have very successful season.”
The Rocklin, Calif. product was one of two Mavericks who were identified as characters who keep the room light and fun. The catcher said he tries to break the ice whenever possible and he’s always seen baseball for what it is, a game to have fun.
“I’ve always believed that baseball is a game and it should be treated like a game,” Swanson said. “Obviously you need to be business-like and get the job done but at the end of the day, we’re just having fun being kids playing ball.”
Swanson was not in the lineup Thursday in Brooks when the Mavericks lost 9-8 in a six-run walk-off loss to the Bombers.
Mavericks head coach Tyler Jeske said the coaching staff has and will benefit the most from the group being close.
“As a coach you can you can try to facilitate it, you can try to encourage it but at the end of the day it’s on the players and the players are the ones that come together and form that bond and the dynamic,” Jeske said. “It helps having guys like the Stark brothers and Tory Nelson and really all the Canadians. They helped make the Americans feel much more comfortable and it creates this fun group dynamic of togetherness that you can’t force. You can’t do anything to force it, you can’t artificially create it, it has to organically happen.”
One of the Mavericks other catchers, Medicine Hat product Zachary Stark was also classified as one of the characters in the room. He says that role is just how he gets his leadership across.
“Sometimes I need to be louder than other times,” Stark said. “We’re always making sure everybody’s happy, having a good time, that’s what I’m about.”
Mavericks shortstop Nathan Ade was one player to point out Swanson and Stark as the main characters in the room and picked up on the correlation of both being catchers.
“They work with pitchers a lot so they know how to work with them and they work with the position players, so they mingle in and out between position players and pitchers really well,” Ade said.
Jeske pointed at the Mavericks mini camp that ran the first few days the players were together as another reason how the club got so close so quick.
“That’s one of the benefits to running the mini camp and from the get-go being able to say, ‘We’re playing to win, do you want to win this league?’ We have expectations to win this league, we believe we have the talent to win this league and we’re going to do things to do that.”
