Baseball Nova Scotia selects the top 16- and 17-year-old athletes from the 18U division to form the 17U Selects, a provincial high-performance team. These athletes train year-round and compete against top players in the 22U AAA and NS Senior leagues, facing elite competition from across the province. They go on to represent Nova Scotia at the Canada Cup and, every four years, at the Canada Games, where they compete against the best baseball talent in the country.

The 17U Selects program is designed to showcase Nova Scotia's top baseball talent, develop high-performance athletes, and prepare them for collegiate baseball.

Currently, after graduating from the program—even with a collegiate scholarship—players are forced back into the 18U division, despite successfully competing at higher levels. 

Nova Scotia already faces challenges like climate, population size, and infrastructure without putting these embossed road blocks in front of our high performance athletes. 

Relegating these athletes back to a division they skipped hinders their development at a crucial time before they compete against top collegiate talent.

Imagine training for 10 years in a sport, representing your province at the highest level, earning a scholarship, and then being told the season before you leave that you won't have access to the same resources anymore. You’ll no longer be able to compete against the province's best as you prepare for your biggest challenge yet.

Developing high-performance athletes isn’t about local league titles or registration numbers—it’s about pushing them to reach their full potential.

The current process needs to be carefully reviewed by an unbiased sub-committee that goes beyond making recommendations to the board, who ultimately makes the decisions. It's time to put pressure on Baseball Nova Scotia to allow stakeholders—such as current coaches, past players, and coaches—to have a say in what’s best for the province's high-performance athletes.

Please sign this petition to urge Baseball Nova Scotia to do what’s right and support the future of high-performance baseball in our province. Let these athletes compete at the level they’ve earned, allowing them to continue their development and pursue their full potential.