Sylvan Lake Gulls general manager and head coach Jason Chatwood received the ultimate honour for his work during the 2024 Western Canadian Baseball League (WCBL) season.
On Tuesday he was named the WCBL Coach of the Year for the first time in his career. The award is voted on by coaches from across the league and according to an article on the WCBL website he finished ahead of Lou Pote (Okotoks Dawgs), Joe Carnahan (Saskatoon Berries) and Ryan MacDonald (Lethbridge Bulls).
"I'm super honoured and thankful," Chatwood said on Wednesday. "There are a lot of good coaches in the league so to be selected to win that award is pretty special."
This summer Chatwood helped lead the Gulls to a 44-12 record and a president's trophy finish for posting the best record in the regular season. Their 44th victory also set a new regular season wins record previously held by the Okotoks Dawgs when they achieved 43 wins in the 2022 season.
He also gave credit to the rest of his coaching staff.
"Honestly, I look at it as a team award. It's nice to get recognized but I think it just shows what our coaching staff including [pitching coach Matt Hape and assistant coach Wyatt McKnight] were able to do," Chatwood added.
"Also, the entire team itself like all the players and how they played this year."
Chatwood has been the head coach and general manager since the Gulls' inaugural season in 2021 and since then has won over 140 games. He's also reached the second round of the playoffs in each of the last three years including a West Division Final's loss to the Okotoks Dawgs this past summer.
"Now that I've had a chance to reflect on the entire season from start to finish, it was an amazing year," Chatwood said.
"We had multiple guys selected in the MLB draft this year so to see that and the amount of wins we were able to get was awesome. The wins are important but I think just how the guys embraced Sylvan Lake and the community was great too. It goes by so fast and I think it's nice to sit back and reflect on it."
He grew up in Red Deer and Innisfail where he played local minor baseball before playing at the collegiate level at Colby Community College and Gonzaga University in the U.S.
After returning home, he played many seasons as a member of the Red Deer Riggers Senior AAA program, where he also managed the team. In 2018 he took on the lead instructor role at the St. Joseph High School Baseball Academy where he's remained to this day.
In addition, Sylvan Lake Gulls infielder Gavin Roy, designated hitter Cooper Ciesielski, and pitcher Kyle Froelich were named WCBL first-team all-stars
