It's been a busy spring for Whalley Little League with another Bat-A-Thon fundraiser, a 70th-season celebration coming up in July and news of an expanded catchment area for the long-established baseball association.
Kids who live in Tsawwassen, Ladner and south of 16th Avenue in Surrey/White Rock can now play ball in Whalley.
The move means more families, more players and more opportunities to grow the game in the heart of Surrey, according to Clint Stewart, first-year president of Whalley Little League.
"Now no kid will be turned away from playing Little League baseball, after we expanded our catchment by around 35 per cent," he said.
Little League International approved the expansion in May.
"South Delta had a Little League but it folded in 2024," Stewart explained. "A couple of their kids wanted to come to Whalley, so I started the ball rolling right away because if we didn't get the catchment expanded and they were good players, they wouldn't be able to play summer ball."
The move aims to benefit kids that wouldn't have anywhere to play Little League, only BC Minor baseball.
"Little League is predominantly more popular up to 12 years old because of, you know, the draw of the Little League World Series and things like that," Stewart said.
"So if we didn't get our catchment expanded before June 1, then those kids wouldn't be able to qualify to join an organization that could potentially go to the Little League World Series. One of the kids from South Delta ended up making our 12-year-old sanctioned team, so he's able to play because we we're able to open up our catchment, thank goodness."
Next season the move might see an increase in registration numbers for Whalley, up from the current 351 players.
"We're hoping so, and we'll be advertising more in those new areas for us," Stewart said. "Word is spreading in Delta, same with below 16th Avenue (in South Surrey and White Rock), which was a dead zone as well. I think three families wanted to come to Whalley but weren't able to because they weren't part of our catchment and their kids really wanted to play summer ball. So now that's an option for them this coming year."
Whalley's annual Bat-A-Thon day of fun and fundraising, held Saturday, June 7, raised close to $57,000 for equipment and facility upgrades, and also player development.
"It was a huge success for us, for sure," Stewart said. "This year we invested in a couple of Rapsodo pieces of equipment that help measure pitching and hitting metrics, predominantly used in colleges, universities and professional baseball leagues.
"For our kids that's huge, because it gives you instant real data that you can show your players. Like, for pitching it shows them the velocity, spin rate, the movement of the ball, and similar numbers for hitting, all that data. A portion of the Bat-A-thon proceeds go towards that, but it's mostly for buildings and fields, and now we're investing in technology to improve our players and teams."
Whalley's 70th-year celebration is Saturday, July 12 at Whalley Athletic Park, where thousands of kids have played on ball diamonds over the years. Stewart calls the gathering "a huge party in the park" with beer garden, inflatables for kids in a play zone, banner-raising, speeches and salutes to winning teams including the Big League District 3 team of 2000 and Whalley's 2024 Major All-stars team that won the Canadian championship for a trip to the 2024 Little League World Series.
"We'll be unveiling some new scoreboard banners for brand-new scoreboards that we have, because we just installed two brand new scoreboards on D3 and D5 (fields), which is pretty huge," Stewart noted. "We've got four working scoreboards now at the park. Money for those was raised during Bat-A-Thons from previous years, just finished a few months ago, so that's massive for Whalley Little League."
From July 10 to 20, Whalley's Rally in the Valley tournaments will be played over 10 days — three tournaments for different age groups under one umbrella. Visit whalleylittleleague.com for details.
