Dedicated volunteers recognized
Mosher, Crouse earn national awards for giving back to the game
A pair of Nova Scotians have been recognized nationally for giving freely of their time for a sport they love and the betterment of others.
Baseball Canada recently announced Wolfville’s Ian Mosher as its lifelong coaching award recipient and Antigonish resident Randy Crouse as its volunteer of the year.
“You don’t do it for this reason, but it’s one of the things when it happens, you’re like that’s a wow moment,” said Crouse, the national co-ordinator for Challenger Baseball Canada. “It feels good to be acknowledged for the number of hours you put in and the passion you have.”
Challenger Baseball is an adaptive program that provides an opportunity for children with cognitive or physical disabilities to play the game at a level structured to their abilities.
Mosher played for the Kentville Wildcats senior team in its inaugural season in 1977 and was involved with the squad for nearly 40 years as either a player or coach — and sometimes both. He was inducted into the team’s Hall of Fame during a ceremony in mid-August where his No. 29 was placed alongside his teammates’ numbers in right field.
“It was amazing to see how many of my former players that were there, are now coaches, and that to me is absolutely the greatest achievement of my career,” Mosher said. “Wins and losses, in my opinion, as important as they are, pale in comparison to what you give to children.”
One of those players
Mosher coached through his lifetime involvement with the sport was Crouse. They were both part of the Acadia University program.
“It’s kind of cool to link it all back 20 years later,” Crouse said, while offering his congratulations to Mosher.
The Fort Ellis native grew up playing softball in the
East Hants factory known for turning out some of the best players in the province. After graduating from South Colchester High School in Brookfield in 1999, he attended Acadia University.
While studying kinesiology, Crouse was involved with the S.M.I.LE. (Sensory Motor Instructional
Leadership Experience) Program.
“I just fell in love with it.” After finishing his education, Crouse became involved with minor baseball in Antigonish, where he is a registered nurse in the intensive care unit at St. Martha’s Regional Hospital. Soon an opportunity to start Challenger Baseball in the community presented itself.
“The S.M.I.LE. Program kind of planted the seed and it kind of just grew from there.”
Crouse said he had started to lose the passion for the competitive side of sport, but Challenger Baseball ignited a new passion. He said it is tough to adequately describe the feeling of being involved with the program but said there have been many moments that have brought happy tears to his eyes.
“It’s the highlight of my week,” he said. “It just makes you feel good inside.”
Mosher said he’s intimately familiar with Challenger Baseball and was involved in numerous Challenger games during the Roy Hobbs tournaments in Florida. He congratulated Crouse for spreading his love and joy of sport to others.
“That is an extraordinary gift that you give those youth and they benefit from it so much.”
Earlier this week, Mosher wrote a letter to a couple from Michigan, who for years brought their grandson to Florida. Mosher would spend time with him, sometimes reading or juggling or just playing.
“I wouldn't trade any of that for more gold rings, more gold medals, any of that,” he said. “That was an extraordinarily special time.”
Crouse has witnessed the growth of the Challenger Baseball first-hand. In Antigonish, the program started with eight kids in 2014 and he is anticipating having about 45 in 2022.
“When we first started, it was a lot of explaining what Challenger Baseball was,” he said. “As the years have gone on, we’ve gone from, ‘What is Challenger?’ to ‘I’ve heard a lot of good things about your program, can I get involved?’”
It is rewarding for Crouse, as it the national award, which he hopes helps raise the program’s profile. Always a teamfirst player, Crouse deflected the recognition to a collection of dedicated people who help make Challenger Baseball possible across the country.
“It’s definitely a team award,” he said. “None of this works without the volunteers.”
It is a sentiment echoed by Baseball Canada’s president and CEO.
“The amount of time they put towards making baseball better is just unbelievable,” said Jason Dickson. “If we actually had to pay our volunteers like they were salaried employees, you would never be able to do it.
“Organizations and notfor-profits, like us, we rely on individuals to make these things happen. They’re the most valuable assets we have, I think, in our sporting world.”
Dickson said the annual awards are one way the organization recognizes the great work being done across the country. A committee reviews the nominations it receives before the winner is selected.
Mosher said he was not a big player internationally but was one of the first coaches to register and embrace the National Coaching Certification Program.
“For them to reach out and recognize the small-town guy, that’s pretty special,” he said. “And there are small-town guys like me in every baseball town in this country deserving of the description on this award.”
This is only the second year for the coaching award with British Columbia’s John Haar being the first recipient.
“Every place that we’ve gone for nationals in this country – Red Deer, Chatham, Windsor, Prince George – all of these communities have guys who have given their whole lives to the sport of baseball,” Mosher said. “And if that's what this award is to become, I am absolutely thrilled that I can be on that list.”