Titans Baseball Club’s charity campaign raises $3,690 and counting for Movember Foundation

November 9, 2023 · 0 Comments

The Titans Baseball Club’s Third Annual Movember Foundation fundraising campaign raised $3,690 this past weekend during its Coaches versus Players Charity Game in Markham and the total is climbing.

The community’s $2,500 target for Fall 2023 was eclipsed as October drew to a close and there is a month left in the campaign as the calendar flips to “Movember.”

Titans Director of Baseball Operations and Player Development Lawrence Vera provided an update and delineated an incentive plan for the organization’s high-performance student-athletes.

“As of today, our 2023 campaign has raised $3,690. Players have until December 3 to bring in more donations to be entered in to win our raffle prizes, sponsored by Mizuno.”

The Annual Titans Coaches versus Players Game is the climactic event for the high-performance baseball organization’s Fall Ball program.

The Titans play their Canadian Premier Baseball League home games and run their practices at St. Andrew’s College in Aurora. The MVP of the weekend’s exhibition game was Aurora’s Owen Norris who took home a prize package provided by the Movember Foundation and will have his name inscribed on the Movember Foundation Titans’ trophy.

Norris had an outstanding game versus the Titans coaches’ pitching staff that included former LA Angels pitcher Eddie McKiernan who serves as the organization’s 17U Head Coach, and the Titans’ Pitching Coordinator.

Norris—an aspiring US College baseball player and a graduate of Aurora High School—performed brilliantly in the chilly conditions on Sunday afternoon at Milliken Park and his heroics at the plate caught Coach Vera’s eye.

“Owen was a beast at bat. He went three for four on the day with 4 RBI. It was awesome to have an 18U player win the MVP as he heads to college next year. He follows in the footsteps of Nolan Thomson [of Newmarket] who won the award in our first two years and now plays for the Rend Lake College Warriors in Illinois.”

Coach Vera also expressed his appreciation to Shane DeMerchant and his team from the Movember Foundation for attending the game and braving the wintry conditions.

“A big thank you to Shane from Movember for providing a hooded sweatshirt for Norris and we look forward to inscribing Owen’s name on our Movember trophy alongside Nolan Thomson’s.”

Coach Vera expressed relief that the Titans were able to get the annual tradition back on track.

“It was great to complete our annual Movember game in Markham after having to take a year off and it was great to have representatives from the Movember Foundation attend the coaches-players game. The players, coaches, and parents always have a great time and create lots of memories.”

The Titans raised $5,182 in 2020 and 2021 for the Movember Foundation. The annual game is a community-building activity for the baseball club, but it is always competitive as Coach Vera was quick to point out that the Coaches’ undefeated streak is intact.

“It was another great game for a great cause. The coaches got out to an earlier lead but saw it diminish quickly and we enjoyed a hard-fought comeback to win 8-7. We get to keep our bragging rights this year.”

The Titans kicked off the fundraising campaign on Sunday with the Third Annual Coaches versus Players Charity Game held at Milliken Field in Markham. Titans’ players paid $75 each to participate in the game; such generosity on the part of the community jumpstarted the fundraising campaign.

Game participation fees and subsequent on-line donations go towards the Movember Foundation’s special focus on prostate and testicular cancer treatment and its research initiatives as well as its related social programs connected to suicide prevention.

By Jim Stewart