PBR Alberta Announcement

Prep Baseball Report Canada is pleased to announce the relaunch of PBR Alberta in partnership with Lethbridge based Under the Lights Sports and Entertainment (UTLSE). Heading this partnership will be Director Todd Hubka, Head Coach of the Prairie Baseball Academy. Hubka’s baseball roots are firmly entrenched in Alberta as he led PBA on a streak of seven consecutive Canadian College World Series titles and during his tenure as head coach, has compiled a record of 258-179, as well as helped to move over 150 players on to four-year schools. “I am very excited to work with PBR Alberta and my good friend Chris Kemlo to help these young kids reach their dreams of playing at the next level.” Assisting Hubka will be Assistant PBR Alberta Director Jesse Sawyer who played at PBA before spending 3 seasons at South Dakota State, being selected 1st team All-Summit League twice as well as setting the single season home run record with 19HRs in 60 games. Since his playing days, Sawyer has spent years coaching for both PBA and the Lethbridge Bulls as well as teaching coaches around the nation for Little League Canada. PBR Alberta is excited to also have the support of current Director of Scouting for PBR Canada, Chris Kemlo. Kemlo Brings years of experience and connections from his work with PBR and will be a valuable asset moving forward. PBR Alberta is excited to work with a longtime friend. “ It’s exciting to bring along Hubka and his staff to PBR Alberta. The baseball knowledge he has expands from evaluating, connections in the college world, top notch work ethic, and how well he knows the lay of the land in Alberta will be a huge plus for us, but more importantly the players of Alberta.”                                                                           

PBR Alberta will name several Associate Scouts from around Alberta. Working closely with Hubka will be Riley Barrett. Barrett played at PBA before moving to San Diego State University, he is a Driveline and OnbaseU certified coach and is now training college level talent out of Red Deer. Ryan MacDonald will also act as an Associate Scout for PBR Alberta. MacDonald played 2 seasons for the University of Texas-Brownsville, 1 of which included being named to the 2008 All-Conference team. MacDonald has coached at PBA for over 11 years, as well as coaching the Lethbridge Bulls from 2014-2016 in which he led the Bulls to two consecutive seasons with the best record in the WCBL and to the Bulls first ever WCBL Championship. Aqil Samuel is another former player who won All Conference honours playing for Viterbo College in the NAIA. After many years of coaching Aqil is now the General Manager of the new WCBL expansion team, the Sylvan Lake Gulls. Adding to the associate scout list will be Sam Marino and Chance Wheatley. Marino is the current College Recruiting Coordinator for Calgary Babe Ruth and has helped many players from the Calgary area get into college baseball. Wheatley has coached PBA for the past 3 seasons and is going into his second year as the Assistant Coach of the Lethbridge Bulls. Wheatley was a member of the 2016 CCBC All-Conference team as a Player for PBA and Spent 2 years playing with the Yorkton Cardinals in the WCBL. Rounding out the present staff will be Cam Williams, who is the newly head coach of the University of Calgary Dinos and the Dinos all-time hits leader. Williams also has played with the Weyburn Beavers of the WMLBL and will be a great asset to the staff in the Calgary region. PBR Alberta is proud and excited to be working with this impressive group and will look to add more depth and coverage of Alberta through future additions to our scouting network.      

UTLSE will provide administrative, marketing, and logistical support for all PBR Alberta events and activities. UTLSE President and CEO Kevin Kvame is excited to take on the project of operating PBR Alberta. “This is a great opportunity for Under the Lights to expand our footprint across Alberta. It gives young baseball players a chance to showcase their skills to scouts and coaches around North America.” Mr. Kvame is glad to have current U of L student athlete Michael Schwab to lead this area as Administrative Coordinator for PBR Alberta activities.

The mission of the Prep Baseball Report is to scout and promote amateur and collegiate baseball to ultimately allow players to live out their dreams of playing baseball at the next level. With more than 150 scouts, PBR has the largest baseball scouting infrastructure across all levels of amateur baseball in North America. PBR is the top resource for amateur baseball in each province it covers, through a variety of events and multimedia platforms. The multimedia platforms and events work in tandem, ultimately creating the most powerful source of high school baseball promotion in North America. PBR’s goal is to become the authoritative voice on the ground level of each province. PBR is currently in 41 states and Canada, each with a scouting director that focuses on the amateur talent in their respective territory.                                       

The Prep Baseball Report’s hyper-local focus is augmented by its national scouting staff that focuses on the top national prospects in all prep classes. More than 900 colleges and pro teams subscribe to the PBR services.

PBR Alberta is excited to announce its first event on August 19th, 2020 at Spitz Stadium in Lethbridge AB, with more details and registration available soon. This open showcase camp will follow guidelines provided by Alberta Health Services to comply with Covid-19 protocols to ensure the safety of the players and families.                                                                                                   

For further details contact Michael Schwab at [email protected] or at 403-320-2025.