Newmarket resident Brian Bratt wanted to find a way to stick with baseball after the end of the local senior team in 1996.
Bratt had played baseball with the Newmarket Hawks from age 12, at the junior and senior levels. At age 25, when the team went defunct, Bratt said he got an offer to start coaching at the peewee level.
It was the start of a coaching journey that would last 26 years.
“I kept going because I love the game, I like giving back,” he said, describing how it took a lot of dedication in time to get to games at night. “Sometimes, it was a struggle.”
Bratt is calling it quits after 26 years of coaching with the Newmarket Baseball Association. After all that time coaching, he said he would like more time with his family.
His coaching career has spanned many years across many teams, coaching players from ages 12 to 22.
“It’s changed over the years,” he said. “The way I coached has changed over the years. Players, the family dynamics have changed … I was able to coach and teach a sport I love and give back.”
It was the love of the game that kept him doing it for so long.
“We had lots of fun.”
Bratt, who always coached on a volunteer basis, also got to experience coaching his son for several years. Mitch Bratt is now a highly touted Major League Baseball prospect.
“I don’t take credit in his rise. He has natural talent,” he said, adding that eventually, his son became so good that he needed better coaching. “We talk on a regular basis, I’ll always be his coach, but he’s got other coaches that are taking him to the next level.”
Bratt coached championship teams, including an Ontario Baseball Association championship in 2006. But most recently, he was an assistant coach on the 2022 22U AAA team that became national champions.
"That was pretty special,” he said. “It would have been easy to retire last year and say I’m going out on top, but I decided one more year. And we finished third in Ontario this year, which is great, but we didn’t get another chance to go to nationals.”
The 52-year-old credited John Cudmore for starting him on the coaching journey and whom Bratt coached alongside. Doug Lunney also garnered Bratt's praise as a fellow coach on the same bench.
He praised “their friendship and their companionship on the diamond because it takes more than one coach per team.”
“Covered a lot of miles, had a lot of laughs,” Cudmore said on social media after Bratt announced the coaching retirement. “Told (and created) a lot of stories and hopefully helped a lot of kids. Thanks, buddy. Great career.”
Bratt said he would find ways to keep himself busy with the added free time. He said his 10-year-old daughter is playing soccer, and he would also have more chances to see his son play in the United States without worrying about missing Newmarket baseball games.
He reflected on seeing many of the players he coached grow up, some becoming fathers and coaches themselves.
“I’ll always be a supporter,” Bratt said of the Newmarket Hawks. “I gave them my all. I gave them my heart, blood, sweat and tears, and I hope I made a difference.”
