What Makes Us Unique (Terriers Baseball)

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WHAT MAKES US UNIQUE

THE LEADERSHIP

Led by Rick Johnston, the 20+ Terriers coaching staff have countless years of experience at the elite level. Almost all our coaches have coached or played at every level of the game, including Pro, College, National and Provincial teams. They continually develop their coaching skills to better shape our student athletes to their highest potential.

Our Terrier coaches have a passion for baseball and for the players in our organization. This coaching staff is indeed the next level of mentoring and instruction that these young men require to prepare them for what comes next in their baseball careers. Each player will be trained on the finer points of the technical and strategic aspects of the game, and they will begin to form a mental approach that they can build on well into the future. While all of this experience is unfolding, players will also learn what it takes to be good teammates and respect their coaches and their fellow team members. This truly is a life changing experience for young men with serious baseball aspirations.

The common denominator amongst our staff is their commitment to The Terrier Way of making our student athletes better both on and off the playing field. ‎We take our objectives seriously and adhere to a strict code of ethics for both players and coaches.

* All of our staff have completed police security checks for the volunteer vulnerable sector.

TRAVEL, COMPETITION and SCHEDULES

The Terrier calendar is chock full of everything a player needs for the development of his baseball portfolio. From year-round strength testing and training at The Baseball Zone's SST facility, to an intense winter training schedule, a spring trip to Florida, competing in the CPBL, culminating in a month of intense baseball tournament play centered in America.

The facts are clear - in order to face the best competition and put ourselves into recruitable situations, we have to head south of the border. By doing so, our players quickly learn why our priorities are on development as we are vying to match or exceed the U.S. level of play in order to command the respect of Americans while we play their national pastime.

All costs for travel to the U.S. (excluding day trips) are included in The Terrier program. Summer trips to the U.S often leave early in the week returning Sunday and we understand families often do not have the time to transport and look after their players for such extended periods. Our program supervises, transports and provides accommodation at trademark hotels with all meals included for these trips.

One of the highlights of The Terriers travel schedule is the annual spring trip to Florida. All four Terriers teams fly (not bus) to Florida for practices and games to Florida for 8 days of March Break. This week in the south will consist of practices, games versus U.S. high school age programs and U.S. College teams (18U).

* A detailed description of each season in The Terrier calendar is listed here.

APPLYING SPORTS SCIENCE

The_Performance_Lab.jpgAll Terriers are tested by The Performance Lab for strength and functionality, with their individual results analyzed by leading edge bio-mechanists. Using the latest techniques in sports science, these results are translated to individual strength programs to better protect the athlete from injury and maximize their functional power output. Terriers train at The Sports Specific Training facility (SST) conveniently located at The Baseball Zone.

THE FACILITIES

Kings_Christian_Diamond.jpgDuring the winter, all four Terriers teams train extensively at The Baseball Zone, Canada’s leading and most comprehensive baseball facility. Our program incorporates Sports Specific Strength training at our in-house performance training facility, which allows our Terriers to conveniently practice their baseball skills and strength train at the same location.

The spring weather takes the program outdoors to our home fields at King’s Christian Collegiate centrally located in Oakville. The Terriers are the prime baseball tenant at this multi-million dollar turf field featuring a classic brick backdrop, pro-style dugouts and an electronic scoreboard. Terriers teams practiced and played over 150 games at Kings in one season. We get the jump on the season in mid April and carry though till mid October. Due to the state of the art drainage system, we have a minimum of rain-outs on a yearly basis.

STRONG, RESPECTED, RELIABLE OWNERSHIP

In April 2023, Rick Johnston was joined by Kevin Horton who took over for Mike and Nicole Tevlin as partner, with The Terriers and The Baseball Zone. Kevin has been working for The Baseball Zone since 2004, making this a seamless transition.   

Horton brings strong organizational acumen to the program and a passion to continue the Terriers proud tradition. 

HOW TO BECOME A TERRIER

If you are a serious student athlete, fill out this Recruiting Form. We will be in touch and inform you of the try-out dates that The Terriers will be operating in the coming months. Should you have any further questions about the program or the recruiting process, please feel free to contact us at [email protected] and we will get back to you within 48 hours. Also feel free to drop by The Baseball Zone with any enquiries.