Naomi Campbell, Contributor | 

The University of Calgary (UofC) Dinos Baseball Team is one of the many clubs that make up the UofC’s athletics program. The long standing association has gone to compete against teams across Alberta and British Columbia, even winning their first ever Canadian College World Series Championship in May of 2023. As some of you may or may not know, it is not only students that attend the University of Calgary that get to play, but also your fellow Mount Royal University (MRU) classmates and peers you see wandering the halls everyday. With UofC having the only university baseball team in Calgary, it is the only option for some of these boys to continue to play baseball while attending university classes. 

Eric Wirun has been playing with the Dinos for the past four years while pursuing a business degree at MRU. When asked about reading break, and how scheduling can conflict being from MRU, he was very transparent with how working around these conflicts has only gotten easier to navigate over the past 4 years.

“It is just a little bit funky cause when everyone’s going back and seeing their parents and taking time off, it kind of sucks cause ours line up differently,” Wirun said. “I’d say the biggest pain though is when we do have those out of town trips… it was very very hard to get my midterm moved, not being an MRU athlete made the process really tricky.”

Wirun also shed some light on the subject of not being able to play on a scholarship basis, and how that had an effect on his decision of where to go for university. 

“I just fell in love with the atmosphere and the program [at MRU],” Wirun said. “I know it’s a big chunk of money but it just seemed like such a small price to pay.” 

Wirun also shared his thoughts on the collaboration of three different schools under one logo, stating that while he believes it benefits the institutions, he feels more awareness is needed. He emphasized the importance of informing students that they can apply to their desired university even if it doesn’t have everything they hoped for—there is always a solution. 

Two of the rookies also provided a different perspective on this controversial situation. Joey Ell previously attended the UofC before making the decision to transfer to MRU to pursue a psychology degree. While at UofC Ell did not play with the Dinos, but was still playing high level club baseball. After taking a year off of school and not playing baseball anymore, he made the decision to apply to Mount Royal and to the Dinos Baseball Team. 

“When I took that year off from playing really competitive baseball, I was like ‘no I have to go back.’ And this was really my only option at the age group I’m at. And MRU with their smaller class sizes, that was more of a preference for me,” said Ell.

Evan Gorr, another rookie, gave his reasons as to why he also chose MRU over UofC. 

“I always wanted to go to Calgary and stay close to home. And I ended up choosing Mount Royal because of the class sizes and such, being able to play baseball for UofC was kind of a bonus,” Gorr said.

Ben Hul, a third-year finance major at MRU, shared how the baseball program’s club status, rather than being a varsity sport, influenced his decision to attend a university close to home. While he acknowledged the lack of scholarships as a drawback, Hul noted that the cost wasn’t a significant concern for him, thanks to his parents living in Calgary.

Head coach Cameron Williams has been a part of the Dinos baseball program since starting out as a player in 2015 until 2018, moving into the position of head coach in 2020.  With players from three different schools, Williams shared valuable thoughts on how they balance their educational and athletic commitments. He emphasized that while most players face similar challenges, their success lies in maintaining constant communication. 

“Just asking players to communicate with us right away… the big one is just open communication amongst them cause everyone has a little bit of a different situation,” Williams said. “Even at MRU, the professors are still willing to work with them even though they are a part of Dino’s athletics and not Cougars athletics, they are still wanting to support.”

Even though they are all from different schools and different situations, the Dinos Athletics Program and the CCBC (Canadian College Baseball Conference) have done an amazing job including everyone. Allowing students to play even if they are not interested in attending the University of Calgary is a wonderful opportunity for the past, present and future generations of Canadian baseball talent.

After all, this group of boys is here for one thing, and one thing only— to play baseball. Even though they swing for the fences with a Dinos logo on their jerseys, their blood is Cougar blue, just like all of us at Mount Royal University.