The Carleton Ravens baseball team held a golf tournament July 7 to raise funds to host the Canadian Intercollegiate Baseball Association (CIBA) National Championship in October.
The participants, including current players, alumni, and family raised $2,500 for the team, according to head coach Rick Young.
The team receives approximately one-quarter of its funding from the athletic department, Young said.
Young said the remainder of the budget is paid through fundraising and player fees, which range from $300 to $400 per season.
As a result, fourth-year student and second baseman Adam Lague said fundraising has become a significant part of the team’s identity and a bonding experience.
“We all feel it’s a pretty important thing. We’re all university students, we’re not rich,” he said.
“We can’t just throw money at everything, so we have to fundraise.”
Lague said they are planning more fundraising events throughout the school year, including a still-to-be determined pub crawl.
Despite the need to fundraise, Young insists the team is not dissatisfied with the commitment they receive from the Carleton athletics department.
“The baseball staff is very happy and impressed with the hard work that people at [Carleton] Athletics do,” Young said via email.
“[They] always make time for us and went above and beyond to support the club as we headed to Moncton for nationals last year.”
Bob Rumscheidt, the manager of Interuniversity Programs at Carleton, said the baseball team receives an operating grant for funding from the athletics department, and the team has always chosen that process since they became a competitive club.
“Competitive clubs have the choice to enter as many tournaments as they want,” he added. “They can enter a lot and have extra fundraising, or not go in as many tournaments and not spend as much. Our baseball team wants to do more, so they are happy to take it upon themselves to pay for those extra costs.”
The 2012 CIBA National Championship, held October 19-21 at Kinsmen Field in Kanata, will require a financial commitment upfront, but Young said he believes the team will ultimately benefit from the opportunity.
“There are some costs associated with hosting the nationals, but at the same time there’s the opportunity to recoup those costs,” Young said. “Nationals should be a money maker for us.”
The Ravens are the defending CIBA Northern Conference Champions, and after losing just one starting player to graduation, the team is in a strong position to repeat with most of the starting lineup returning for the upcoming 2012-13 season.
After dropping the CIBA national semifinal game last season to the Humber College Hawks, outfielder Ben Milinkovich said the Ravens are eager to win at home in 2012.
“We really have high hopes for the season,” Milinkovich said. “Losing in the semis last year really left a sour taste in everyone’s mouth.”
“With that many guys coming back, we all think we have a pretty good shot at it,” Lague said.
“With us hosting nationals, we’d love nothing more than to take it on our home turf.”
Young said five or six top-notch recruits are coming to Carleton this fall, and will add to the team’s impressive roster.
With that in mind, he said he is expecting a number of players to increase their roles this season.
“Charlie Crabb was nominated for our pitcher of the year last year,” he said.
“He’s pitching locally this summer and he’s having a pretty good summer. So I’m expecting good things out of Charlie, and I’m expecting Ben Milinkovich to both step up as a leader as well as his defensive play.”
A 2011 All-Canadian outfielder, Milinkovich said he is up for the challenge after absorbing the winning tradition presented by last year’s leaders.
“I’ve definitely learned a lot . . . from the captains last year – Steve Renaud, Evan Hammond, and Ryan Kerstens – you can really learn a lot from those leaders,” he said.
Young said those three top players would be “the workhorses of the team” again this season.
Training camp opens August 28 for returning players and camp invitees before the Ravens open their season September 2 at Concordia University.
Carleton’s home opener is a September 8 doubleheader against McGill University.
Young explained that for many of the players it isn’t a traditional training camp, but rather an opportunity to build chemistry.
