Two members of the Parkland Expos Midget 鈥楢AA鈥� Baseball Club will be continuing their baseball careers on the West Coast.
Relief pitcher/outfielder Jake Holinaty and infielder/pitcher Kholton Shewchuk will both be joining the Vancouver Island Baseball Institute (VIBI) Mariners for the upcoming season after the two officially agreed to join the Mariners, who are affiliated but not officially a part of, Vancouver Island University. 鈥淚鈥檓 very excited to be going to Vancouver Island to play some baseball,鈥� Holinaty told Yorkton This Week following the 2015 Western Canadian Championships. 鈥淭hey have a great program there because they finished well last year, finishing in the finals last year and I鈥檓 really excited about it.鈥�
Holinaty is also excited that fellow Parkland Expo teammate Kholton Shewchuk will be joining him at VIBI this upcoming season. 鈥淗e鈥檚 my throwing partner so I get to bring my throwing partner with me to B.C. and I鈥檓 really excited for Shewy to come with me,鈥� offered Holinaty. 鈥淚鈥檝e played ball with him all throughout my life and it鈥檚 definitely going to be great to have him there with me on my team again.鈥�
Shewchuk echoed his long-time teammate鈥檚 opinion, saying: 鈥淚鈥檝e known Jake since I was little and since the first time I played baseball in Yorkton, so me and him have been great friends forever even outside of baseball in hockey and other sports. I鈥檝e seen him around through school and everything and he鈥檚 a great guy and I鈥檓 happy to be going there with him.
鈥淚鈥檓 definitely looking forward to going there and playing some college level baseball.鈥�
For Shewchuk, VIBI wasn鈥檛 the only option he had, although for him it was the one that suited him the most. 鈥淚 had a couple of offers from the United States but decided that it wasn鈥檛 for me,鈥� said the 5鈥�10鈥�, 230-pound Shewchuk. 鈥淚 wanted to stay in Canada and play some ball in this country because I think that would be a lot more fun and I knew some guys going out to BC and thought that it might be more fun.鈥�
Meanwhile Holinaty, who didn鈥檛 have any strong offers from the United States, felt that VIBI was the perfect fit for him as well and that had he had other offers, Vancouver Island would still be the place he would have ended up going. 鈥淚 was looking at some of the Canadian colleges that offered baseball in Canada and found VIBI and I decided to look there knowing that I had family close to there,鈥� mentioned Holinaty, continuing, 鈥淚t was the kind of place that I thought would be a good fit to pursue my schooling and baseball, so I contacted them through email and then they saw me play and some videos of me and they liked what they saw and wanted me to come play for their team next year.鈥�
The two Mariner recruits credit the SPBL 鈥楢AA鈥� Division and coach Tony Black for preparing them for their upcoming post-secondary baseball careers.
Both Holinaty and Shewchuk will also be attending Vancouver Island University while playing baseball at VIBI, with Holinaty studying Kinesiology and Education while Shewchuk will pursue a Degree in Business, focusing on either Finance, Accounting or Management.
