Baseball Canada presented the Baseball Canada 2024 Coach Recognition award on Sunday evening to Gaétan Gagnon, the manager of the Baseball CRM program and the Sport-études program at the Académie les Estacades. This award recognizes the coach of the year in the country.
Mr. Gagnon has worked in the field of baseball in the region for 19 years. He is delighted with the successes that the baseball program has experienced over the years, particularly with regard to the players drafted, but above all wishes to recall the success of the program.
My involvement in the world of baseball is more in the school environment and what is important to me is that young people succeed in their school curriculum, then that they leave our programs at Baseball CRM with a diploma. That’s really important to me, he explains.
Baseball is on the rise in Mauricie according to him, driven in particular by the interest of young girls in the sport.
The arrival of women’s baseball has meant that the Quebec baseball workforce is increasing. Then, it’s really a motivation for us to have more and more young people to work with. The female aspect of sport is very important, he says.
The region notably welcomed the Baseball Academy of Canada, saw the creation of the elite women’s baseball sport-studies program at the Académie les Estacades and welcomed the creation of Baseball CRM in recent years.
He affirms that it is in particular the quality of the sports facilities that makes Mauricie and Centre-du-Québec stand out in the field of baseball.
With the facilities of the Alphonse-Desjardins sports center which are, in my opinion, the most beautiful facilities for minor baseball in Quebec and the supervision of our minor baseball during the summer, which connects with our Sport-études programs during the “school year, I think we have nothing to envy of anyone in Quebec,” he said.
He is delighted with the rise in popularity of baseball, and hopes that it will become a regular event at the Olympic Games.
According to an interview on the show Always in the morning
