Reiniger signs with the University of Alabama Huntsville. signed an early NCAA Division 2 Letter of Intent to play for the UAH 
Chargers in 2007. David received an athletic and academic scholarship and will begin his studies in the highly ranked Aerospace Engineering program. The entire Vauxhall Academy of Baseball family would like to congratulate David on being the 1st player ever to receive a scholarship out of the Jets program.
Author: Greg Farries
1st Annual VAB Golf Tournament
Vauxhall Golf Club
4 man scramble format
Date: TBA
Great chance to meet the stars of tomorrow!
1st Annual VAB Scholarship/Awards Fundraiser Dinner – March 10, 2007
What: Vauxhall Academy of Baseball 1st Annual Awards/Scholarship Fundraising Dinner.
When: March 10th, 2007.
Where: Vauxhall, Alberta – Vauxhall Community Center.
Time: 5:00 pm Cocktails/Appetizers – 5:45 pm Program to start.
Special Guest Speaker: Jeff Zimmerman “Former Texas Ranger and MLB All-star.”
Featured Speaker: Stubby Clapp. Stubby was drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1996 amateur entry draft, played with the St. Louis Cardinals, Atlanta Braves, and Toronto Blue Jays and was part of Team Canada in the 2004 Summer Olympics.
Details:We are also having a Live Auction, Silent Auction, Reno Lizzi Scholarship announcement, Sports Connection Scholarship announcement, and several special presentations. VAB Jet players will be the servers for the evening.
Cost: $40.00/individual – $275.00/table of 8.
Please contact Coach McTavish for tickets. We expect a sellout so get your tickets soon!
Marathon Game Successful!
Thanks to everyone who helped with the Marathon game that took place on Sunday October 22nd. The event went off without a hitch and was a big success!
With strikes against them, towns get back in game as hubs for elite athletes
Baseball academy in Vauxhall, Alta., follows example of girls’ hockey school in nearby Warner
by Shawn Ohler, The Edmonton Journal
Published: Monday, October 09, 2006
VAUXHALL – As Cody Phipps and 20 other teenage boys from the Vauxhall Baseball Academy sprint through the grass infield, barking “Atta kid!” and other clipped encouragements unique to baseball, you see two things.
You see the boys’ improbably broad shoulders, and the temptation to place the weight of an entire town — indeed, an entire way of life — upon them.
Phipps, 17, moved last month from Round Hill, an hour southeast of Edmonton, to Vauxhall, an hour northeast of Lethbridge. He and two other Edmonton-area boys came here, to Vauxhall’s new $150,000 field and desert-like climate, to attend high school and play ball through the fall, winter and spring.
But Phipps senses he’s part of a bigger narrative.
“We’ve been told how the team will be good for Vauxhall. In a way, it’s taken me away from my own small town. But (this is) a special thing to be part of,” he says.
Surrounded by pumpjacks and pivot irrigation towers that shape lush circles out of the parched prairie, Vauxhall sits on Highway 36, the single-laner that runs South in a nearly dead-straight line from Two Hills, east of Edmonton, to the Alberta/Montana border.
The town of 1,200 has been battered in recent years by BSE and the closure of the grain elevator, the alfalfa dehydration plant and the rail line. It needed something to counter the slow downward spiral.
Phipps and his teammates in the month-old baseball academy might just be it.
“I love Vauxhall, but geographically, some days it feels like we’re in the middle of the wrong place,” says the town’s mayor, Lois Maloney.
“There was a feeling here that the decline was inevitable, the losing of industry and services. But when the school came up with the (baseball academy) idea, it just sounded like something positive that we hadn’t had in a while.”
Vauxhall Baseball Academy was inspired by its neighbours less than an hour’s drive south in Warner, where the Warner Hockey School for girls in Grades 9 through 12 was launched three years ago.
High-school classes would have been shut down and students shuttled to nearby Milk River if the hockey program hadn’t started in September 2003, says Warner school principal Mark Lowe.
Since then, more than $2 million in player fees — $19,000 a year per player — has circulated through Warner’s economy. Eight jobs have been added to an employment base of about 100.
Shane Mazutinec, a teacher at Vauxhall high school, floated the baseball academy plan the day principal Todd Ojala was reviewing the school’s enrolment projections.
“The trend was losing 20 kids a year for the next five years,” Ojala says.
“For every 10 to 15 students you lose, you lose a staff member. If the trend continued, I’d have to look at some big questions. Do we get rid our shop program? Or home ec? Art? Drama? Music? Band?
“And then Shane walks into my office and says, ‘Hey, I’ve got this idea.’ ”
The players would attend regular classes until mid-afternoon before hitting the diamond.
“We want to recreate the atmosphere these kids would get in junior hockey. We’ll put them on a bus for eight hours, we’ll put them with billets,” says Mazutinec, himself a former WHL player with the Lethbridge Hurricanes.
“We figure American scouts will love our guys. Canadian kids will stand in the batter’s box, take one in the teeth like Ryan Smyth and be back in there in 20 minutes.”
The 2006-07 Vauxhall roster boasts kids from Nova Scotia as well as southern Alberta, not to mention Smoky Lake’s Joshua Hoetmer and Sherwood Park’s Lionel Morrill.
“It was pretty tough at first,” says Phipps, moments after jacking his last batting-practice fastball 90-plus metres over Vauxhall’s left-field fence. “But, just like in baseball, you have to learn how to adjust, become comfortable with the uncomfortable.”
Now he says he loves his new team, and his new town.
All three Edmonton-area boys want to play Division 1 college ball in the States, an opportunity nearly impossible to contemplate back home. For one thing, Vauxhall’s relatively mild climate, which last winter afforded 35 days when the ground was bare and the temperature was above 5C, should allow the academy to practise outside through January and February.
The buzz in town has prompted entrepreneurs to consider building a new hotel here, to accommodate visiting parents and scouts. And the academy gives $70,000 a year to billets’ families to spend in the community on groceries and restaurants.
“I think the program has revitalized the town,” says Les McTavish, the academy’s Stettler-raised coach.
“But we have to be careful not to overstep our boundaries and try to put ourselves on a pedestal. … We want our kids to be involved in the town … the way they are in Warner.”
Sherri Mandel, who cooks at the girls’ dorm, a refurbished Mormon church, answers the residence’s front door with a mortified look. The girls, amped from an 8-1 win that afternoon, have gelled her grey hair into a curly mohawk.
“Can you believe what they put me through?” she says. “They’re monsters!”
It’s mock outrage; Mandel loves “her girls” and Warner’s new heroes.
“There’s more optimism. We’re not losing our high school. Do you know what happens when the high school goes? The town dies.”
In three seasons, Warner grads have earned more than $2 million in college scholarships and financial aid. Many are on American university teams, the goal of current Warner stars like Spruce Grove defender Kara Edwards and Slave Lake centre Megan DiJulio.
Edwards, who, like DiJulio, scored a pretty goal in the afternoon game, says: “Our skills wouldn’t have come nearly as far…” But before she can finish her sentence, DiJulio does it for her, “… if we stayed back home,” she says.
With affectionate synchronicity, they shrug and sigh: “We love it here.”
Both towns and both programs have had growing pains — naysaying from the odd pessimist, tiny social conflicts as local kids size up their new, high-profile classmates.
But as girls from Portage La Prairie, Man., and Great Falls, Mont., and Baddeck, N.S., mill around Sherri Mandel to coo about her new coif, you see two other things.
You see joy, and a town reborn.
[email protected]
© The Edmonton Journal 2006
Calgary Herald: Play Ball in Vauxhall!
The Calgary Herald has a great article on the Vauxhall Academy of Baseball
Successful Spring Training Camp!
May 13th, 2006 was a very exciting day for the Vauxhall Academy of Baseball. The dream of starting this Academy now became a reality as 27 student-athletes, ranging from Grade 8 to Grade 11, arrived in Vauxhall to show their talents and skills to the coaching staff and school officials. Above these 27 players there were also 10 additional players that visited Vauxhall prior to this date.
The evaluation camp day turned out to be great weather wise and all the festivities were very well received by all the visitors. Parents & players enjoyed a lunch put on by the Safe and Care Committee and a tour of the high school with school officials.
On behalf of the Board of Directors, coaching staff and community members we thank everyone for attending. You have made some very tough choices for our coaching staff!
The Vauxhall Academy of Baseball is proud to announce National Partnerships
VAUXHALL, AB – The Vauxhall Academy of Baseball is proud to announce National Partnerships with Easton Canada, of Kirkland, Quebec and Sports Connection (Source for Sports) of Medicine Hat, Alberta, the New Era Hat Company of Derby, NY, USA, and Rawlings Canada, again through Sports Connection.
Easton Canada – through Sports Connection – will supply the Academy with its official uniforms, baseball gloves, spikes, turfs, equipment and apparel. Over 100 Major League Baseball (MLB) players currently use Easton gloves and bats.
“The Coaching Staff and Board of Directors are extremely excited to partner with Easton and Sports Connection in the 1st year of the Academy,” Les McTavish, head coach of the Academy said. “Easton has proven time and time again why they have one of the best baseball products on the market today. Come September the student-athletes at the Academy will be extremely excited with the professional equipment and gear that they will wear.”
Brian Bauman, the owner of Sports Connection Source For Sports in Medicine Hat, said he is thrilled to enter into partnership with the Vauxhall Academy of Baseball. “We are excited to play a part in developing young baseball talent in Southern Alberta and ultimately Western Canada,” he said.
“We at Easton Sports,” said Jon Konigsberg, Canadian/European Sales Manager with Easton Canada, “are very excited about being named the Official Equipment Supplier to the Vauxhall Baseball Academy. Fighting dwindling participation rates in our sport in Canada has been a challenge over the years and this academy is a terrific initiative that will encourage kids to continue to play the game they love while furthering their academic interests. We are proud to have the Easton name associated with this program and will strive to help make it a great success for many years to come.”
New Era will be supplying the official headwear for the Academy. Academy players will be wearing the 5950 model, which is the same hat worn by all Major League Baseball teams. New Era also supplies the hats for Team Canada, many College Teams and the World Baseball Classic. The Academy will have 2 hats – 1 maroon hat with a black/gold logo and 1 black hat with a maroon/gold logo.
“The Academy is extremely gratified to be working with New Era,” McTavish said. “New Era is the world leader in headwear and we all believe that our players, coaches, and support staff will be extremely proud to wear MLB quality hats in 2006/2007.”
Ken Haqq, New Era Canada Marketing Manager, said that, with New Era Cap being so deeply rooted in the sport of Baseball, “we are excited and proud to have the opportunity to be the official headwear of the Vauxhall Academy and look forward to a lasting relationship.”
Rawlings will be the Official Baseball and Helmets of the Academy. Rawlings is a world leader in baseballs and helmets and is the official baseball of Major League Baseball. The Academy will use the Rawlings ROML model baseball for all games.
McTavish said that “Rawlings baseballs and helmets are the best quality that the Academy could possibly use. Rawlings baseballs are the official baseballs of the MLB and will prove again why they are a world leader in this sport.”
For more information:
Les McTavish
Head Coach
[email protected]
(403) 654-2145 – school
403) 382-8869 – Coach McTavish
Vauxhall Academy of Baseball Jets Proud to Introduce the 2006/2007 Team Roster!
VAUXHALL, Alberta – The Vauxhall Academy of baseball is pleased to introduce its inaugural Team Roster.
The Academy’s first roster consists of athletes who have come to live in Vauxhall both from nearby rural towns such as Hays, Alberta, and from as far away as Sussex Corner, New Brunswick. This year’s roster consists of one athlete from Saskatchewan, one from Manitoba, one from Nova Scotia, one from New Brunswick, and sixteen from Alberta. Five of the players come right from Southern Alberta, whereas five are from Calgary and area and six are from north of Calgary.
The creation of Vauxhall Academy of Baseball Jets quickly appealed to many student-athletes from across the country. The Academy filled up quickly and now consists of twenty athletes with the potential for a couple additions (the full roster is below). The Vauxhall Academy of Baseball’s unique atmosphere has enticed these young athletes, who range in age and talent, to come from all over Canada.
All twenty players will be attending Vauxhall High School and will don the Jets jersey in this, our inaugural year. This year’s roster will have thirteen players in their senior year who will be graduating in the spring of 2007. Six of the athletes will be attending grade 11 and one athlete will be joining grade 10.
With such a diverse component of age and place of origin, the team also has an assortment of talent. Four out of the twenty athletes are left-handed hitters and the remaining sixteen players are right-handed hitters. Three out of the fourteen athletes who may pitch are left-handed and eleven are right-handed.
The Vauxhall Academy of Baseball is pleased to announce that five of their senior players were 2005 Team Canada Mizuno Camp invitees, to the Rogers Centre in Toronto, for the top 16 year olds in the country. The athletes who were part of this great experience last fall are Zane Anderson, Kiel Armstrong, Sean Carrick, Cody Phipps and Alex Tufts.
It is evident that the inaugural Vauxhall Academy of Baseball roster consists of young men of great athletic ability, desire and commitment. As Head Coach Les McTavish explains, “Jim (Kotkas, coach) and I have been overwhelmed with the interest in our 1st year of the Academy. We have both worked very hard to ensure that the student-athletes that have been selected are quality young men, strong academic students, and talented athletically. We are both very excited to begin work on August 28th, 2006 with these young men. All of them have a future in the game and we hope that the Academy assists in their developmental process.”
For more information on individual players, please see here for the full roster.
Les McTavish
Head Coach
[email protected]
(403) 654-2145 – school
403) 382-8869 – Coach McTavish
Vauxhall Academy of Baseball announces launch of The Reno Lizzi Scholarship Fund
VAUXHALL, Alberta – The Vauxhall Academy of Baseball is proud to announce The Reno Lizzi Bursary/Scholarship Fund,which was formed to honor Reno’s memory.
Reno was a well respected businessman and devoted baseball fan. Not only did he own and operate his own men’s clothing business, he was instrumental in bringing a Pioneer League Professional Baseball Team to Lethbridge.
Although he was known for his devotion to the Brooklyn/Los Angeles 
Dodgers, he was also an enthusiastic Toronto Blue Jays fan. While his accomplishments in Lethbridge were legendary, for Reno, his family and friends were always a source of much pride and happiness.
Reno was a devoted sports fan and a lifelong Brooklyn-Los Angeles Dodgers supporter. While his accomplishments in Lethbridge are legendary, for Reno, his family was always a source of much pride and happiness.
All monies raised will form Bursaries and Scholarships for elite high school athletes who aspire to combine their academic studies and their passion for baseball at the newly formed Vauxhall Academy of Baseball. This program will officially begin in September 2006. Bursaries will assist student athletes to pursue their scholastic and athletic goals while scholarships will reward those aspirants for their excellence in those disciplines. Scholarship recipients will be also be honored with a Commemorative Ring. Charitable tax receipts will be issued for donations.
The Vauxhall Academy of Baseball would like to invite you attend the press conference/scholarship launch in memory of Reno Lizzi and in support of our aspiring student-athletes.
When: 11:00 a.m. MST, June 23, 2006
Where: Park Place Mall, Lethbridge, Alberta
There will be an announcement of a special scholarship donation at the press conference!
Vauxhall Academy of Baseball coaches, staff, officials, and other special guests will be available for comments and questions at the completion of the press conference.
For more information:
Les McTavish
Head Coach and Manager
(403) 654-2145 – Vauxhall High School
(403) 382-8869 – Coach McTavish
