An Okotoks Dawg went to high school in Stratford, Ontario, where Shakespeare’s quote All the world’s a stage and all the men and women are merely players, is a fact of life.
For Stratford alum Jaxon Valcke’s case, he's an all-star player – the outfielder/first baseman was one of six Dawgs’ selected for the Western Canadian Baseball League All-star game in Edmonton earlier this month.
“I have never been part of something like that,” Valcke said. “And the West side won over the East, that was fun, and all the Dawgs did pretty well.”
Valcke has been hitting in the 2, 3, or 4 spot in the Dawgs’ line-up thanks to his impressive stats. He is third in the league in hitting at .375 as of Monday, with 26 RBI and two home runs, one of them a two-run shot in the Dawgs’ 5-1 win over the Melville Millionaires Sunday night in Saskatchewan.
Valcke grew up in a baseball family. He calls St. Mary’s, Ontario, home where his dad, Tom Valcke, was CEO for the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame. St. Mary’s is about 25km from Stratford, the Shakespeare capital of Canada.
“My dad is the most passionate baseball guy I have ever met,” Valcke said. “He was always encouraging me to play every sport as a kid, but baseball is the one I stuck with the most… Dad had virtually every baseball job that you can think of. He used to scout for a while, was the GM for the Calgary Cannons – I was born in Calgary.
With dad being connected with the Canadian hall of fame, a baseball-loving Jaxon got to rub shoulders as a youth with some of the biggest stars to play on the diamond north of the 49th parallel.
“I met Larry Walker, Justin Morneau, Joey Votto, Fergie Jenkins, Robbie Alomar, it was really cool,” Valcke said. “Fergie Jenkins was really interesting… He had some crazy stories from when he was playing."
Valcke just completed his second year with the UBC Thunderbirds. He got an invite to the school after he went to Vancouver to watch his sister Mia play in Canadian Women’s Baseball championship (the 2019 tournament was held at Seaman Stadium earlier this month).
“I went back for a showcase and I signed after that,” Valcke said. “Coach (Terry) McKaig and (Dawgs executive director) John Ircandia are pretty close and I think what UBC is doing and what the Dawgs are doing are similar.”
UBC Thunderbirds heading out west to play for Okotoks is akin to wine coming from B.C. — there’s been more than a few and it’s of high quality.
“I played a year with (former Dawg) Brendan Rose and he always talked about how he loved playing here,” Valcke said. “I am roommates with Jared Spearing at UBC, and he was coming here, so I kind of went through him to get here.”
He’s glad he did.
“At school I started off pretty cold and had a pretty solid close and I been able to ride that wave into this summer,” he said. “I have been focusing on being relaxed at the plate, the little things I can work on for summer ball… It's been great. I have never played in an environment like this before with the thousands of fans.”
And much like the hundreds of plays he has seen at Stratford, Valcke wants to close his summer run with an encore.
“I want to close off the second-half of the season strong and finish on top again,” Valcke said. “Hopefully we can ride this wave into the playoffs and do something special.”
No matter how special, even if Valcke some day gets into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame, he’ll still be the second-most famous guy from Stratford.
“Justin Bieber went to the same high school as I did and that was pretty cool,” Valcke said with a chuckle. “And his brother’s name is Jaxon, spelled like mine and that is cool.”
