Mavs announce varsity program to develop local talent

By JAMES TUBB on October 15, 2025.

jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb

The Medicine Hat Mavericks are extending their development path with a local program.

The local WCBL club has launched the Mavericks Varsity, a high-performance program designed to give high school students from the city, southern Alberta and Saskatchewan an opportunity to train and develop closer to home.

“It’s always been a passion of mine personally and my wife, when we got into this baseball team, it was about giving back to what baseball gave me,” Mavs’ owner and general manager Greg Morrison said. “It’s a chance to reach that 14-18-year old group.

“That’s a pivotal age, whether you have the goals of being an NCAA DI player or you just want to have a few more summers of fun playing baseball with your buddies. I want to be around that age group, I want to be using our influence and our mentorship to help those guys out.”

The program is open to high school athletes in Grades 10-12 and will run a timeline on Sept. 1 to April 30, starting in 2026. An early price projection is around $6,500 for the program that will play 12-14 games in the fall and 12-14 again in the spring while also offering development on the field but also off the field, Morrison says getting players ready for college, if they want that path, while also allowing athletes the chance to be multi-sport is important for young athletes.

“We’re not going to be here eight hours a day that one guy can come down, but that’s what we want to bring, is you might have a volleyball practice 3-5 p.m. and then get your 30 minutes of hitting and ground balls,” Morrison said.

“It’s not just ground balls for these guys, it’s more mentorship, it’s more the off field stuff. When you’re at the gym with a teammate or someone who’s in this program or by yourself, that’s the stuff we want to let these guys know that matters more than 15 more ground balls, although that will help.”

Morrison affirms the program is designed to supplement the already established programs in the city with high school baseball and American Legion.

Before the announcement, Morrison spoke with pillars of the American Legion program, including Lovell McDonnell, who liked the idea of the program.

Others in attendance of the announcement meeting Tuesday expressed the benefit for athletes of not having to leave their schools or change cities to take part in the program.

“Kids can still graduate with their friends,” an un-named attendee said.

Morrison says athletes will be able to play and practise with the Mavericks Varsity and still play high school ball and for an American Legion team.

“We just want to be there to help, we want to provide some of those families that may not have those opportunities to say you don’t have to move away in Grade 10 if you want to get that great opportunity, so we’re not trying to replace anything,” Morrison said.

“We’re not trying to compete with other academies in a sense, hopefully we’ll be competing on the field with some of them. I’d love it, that’s who we’ll have to play. But I just really want to showcase Medicine Hat and I want to showcase Athletic Park.”

It’s a program Morrison wishes he had coming up through baseball as a child before playing 12 years of professional baseball.

He’s excited by the opportunity to help grow the baseball community and add to the successful foundation in the city.

“We have always been known as being a great community of baseball, great weather, great facilities and this is the Mavericks opportunity to jump in and put a little gas on the fire.”

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