Reflections on the Ottawa Champions Baseball Club
This article was written by David Gourlay
This article was published in From Bytown to the Big Leagues: Ottawa Baseball From 1865 to 2025
Baseball—a game to bring us together on any given warm, sunny summer afternoon—brings joy and a sense of belonging. Baseball is a sport for us all, no matter who we are, what we do, or where we live. For an interconnected community like Ottawa, baseball has a natural place and space to thrive. In baseball, the defense initiates play for the offense to respond to, and this is a game with no time limitations. Baseball is rich in strategy—from pitching and batting to field positioning and baserunning and the dynamics between them. But, I have always been most struck by the chemistry and relationships between the players who reflect a community as all nine players are crucial to one another, both for teamwork and the win. This aspect of the game is an analogy for community: belonging, acceptance, cooperation, and mutual support.
Baseball has been a part of who I am from my youngest days as a boy cheering on the Montreal Expos in the late 1970s. I developed a passion for collecting baseball cards with fond memories of hot summer days in Beaverbrook, cycling furiously to the local Mac’s Milk to tear open wax packs after scrounging together 50 cents from as many nickels and dimes as I could find around the house. Pulling a 1981 O-Pee-Chee Gary Carter card was my moment. Sitting on the curb with friends and yelling that I had a “Kid” card and to this day, that very card is a part of my over 10,000 baseball card collection as these baseball heroes and their craft helped to build my story and even a part of my identity. When Gary Carter came to Ottawa in 1981 for a promotional tour, and my parents took me to meet my hero, I was swept up by his magnetism, his smile, charisma, and personality. Baseball and Gary Carter, as a role model, gave me a voice at such a young age to be more, do more, and be just like him. Of course, I still couldn’t hit a fastball in Little League to save my life!
Thirty years later, it was definitely not my intention to dive into a role in local professional baseball. My story of the Ottawa Champions Baseball Club centers on an awakening that a professional baseball franchise in Ottawa contributes to our community and if done more smartly will foster our collective cohesion, build, memories and provide us some thrilling games at the ballpark at the corner of Coventry Road and the Vanier Parkway.
It started with a Jerry Maguire moment following my reading of Michael Lewis’ trailblazing book on baseball, Moneyball. As a leadership narrative on behavioral science, Lewis profiles the innovation of Billy Beane with the Oakland Athletics and how Bill James influenced the game to move beyond the scouts’ “old school” judgment stereotypes of player evaluation and limit biases and positive favoritisms on the “gut check” into an evidence-based culture of player assessment to value player salaries and performance. The writing engaged my growth mindset with a totally new philosophy on money and winning and inspired me to read more about the game—but not about baseball history or players or stats, but the business strategy of the game and the romantic relationship it has with a community and its people.
I read about detailed business strategies—basic stuff to those in the baseball bubble, but less obvious to fans. It was all about how minor-league franchises build a ballpark culture through in-game promotions, activities, games, and family-friendly engagement for the ballpark to reflect the community it plays in. We want to see ourselves in the ballpark, so we see our neighbors, colleagues, and friends to enjoy a casual evening out and build memories of quality time together. It seemed simple enough—open concourse sections, grassy outfield berms, and more. Other insights piqued my interest on the importance of the five-kilometer radius within a ballpark for walk-up crowds, the value of building business, charitable, and association partnerships and relationships to bring the community into the ballpark to connect to the community as a whole.
This helps build community and I began connecting the dots in my mind to understand baseball with a generative mindset. I pushed myself to ask difficult questions—with a 10,000-seat ballpark with ample parking, a proven history of success in the past, reasonable proximity to the core with our Trans-Canada Highway next to the ballpark, and lots of residential communities around it, why isn’t professional baseball a sustainable and prominent part of our city? Then, I read the City of Ottawa, which owns the ballpark, had tendered a request for proposals seeking a broker to facilitate a Toronto Blue Jays Double-A minor-league franchise moving to Ottawa. It was the epiphany and motivation I was looking for—a city-led procurement process would tremendously benefit from a grassroots presence to support the overall process. My vision was to champion the community assets all around us to give confidence to potential ownership groups that we were ready to fully support this franchise.
I jumped right in, and my main principle was collaboration as we build community together. I formally approached Mayor Jim Watson with a proposal to establish a grassroots organization to champion a new professional Blue Jays franchise in Ottawa to highlight corporate and personal support for a team and a season-ticket deposit drive. At the center of it all was engaging community leaders to voice their commitment by calling ourselves, “The Champions for Ottawa Baseball.” The first step was building awareness and securing legitimacy and so I asked former Ottawa Mayor Jim Durrell to act as Honorary Chair of the Champions board. It was Mayor Durrell who put together the resources and talent necessary to attract a Montreal Expos Triple-A franchise to Ottawa in the early 1990s. To listen to Mr. Durrell’s stories of that campaign is to understand the complex dynamics of sports business. I was delighted that Mr. Durrell agreed to play a key leadership role, and with that backing, I had the confidence to roll out a vision and strategy to move our agenda forward. My goal was to articulate to the broader Ottawa community that “Baseball Belongs Here” – a vision to foster community support that reflected our aspirations for fans and families to enjoy quality time together at a ball game and provide a new generation of youth role models to emulate for their own future success.
I launched the Champions for Ottawa Baseball on February 16, 2012, as a public delegation at the City of Ottawa’s Finance Economic Development Committee at city hall to support the proposed request-for-proposals process and the role that Beacon Sports Capital Partners would undertake to secure a professional baseball franchise. I was one of several delegations supporting the return of affiliated baseball and now, our organization would be an advocate for a new lease arrangement with a potential franchise.We emerged that morning to be a collective voice championing the efforts of the city and the Beacon Group with the promise of a new and exciting era for baseball. The committee and council, led by the leadership of Mayor Jim Watson and Deputy Mayor Bob Monette, delivered the support of their colleagues, and we received significant media interest to get us off the ground to start a season-ticket drive as our first main community engagement. The media coverage was positive, and the calls were starting—there was genuine excitement about a fresh look and new approach for professional baseball.
Sadly, later that very same day, Gary Carter passed away from multiple brain tumor complications. That moment was overwhelming for me, and as I reflected on his life, his legacy, and his presence, it served as deep inspiration to me for the challenges and opportunities ahead. I was now a community advocate for baseball, and everything I did personally to secure collaborative support and help us secure this new franchise was for Gary’s legacy.
I questioned how best we could build a board and a series of community engagements that would reflect our community, in order to bring us all together to the ballpark in the summer months to find a collective identity through baseball. I drew a lot of wisdom from an uncle of mine who worked in the game as the general manager for at least three Triple-A franchises in Nashville, Calgary, and Sacramento. His hardest piece of advice—“David, it’s about bums in seats and each ticket sold has a monetary value for concessions, merchandise, and more.” I will always be a dreamer and I had a vision. It was important for me to recognize a sentiment captured best by author James Kerr in his leadership book, Legacy, on the New Zealand All Blacks rugby team—“Vision without action is a dream. Action without vision is a nightmare.”2
I drew on many points of inspiration to bring the business community together and started a listening tour on the many biases the community had about the past failed baseball franchises. But, we were determined to put a new vision out there and we began to immediately build the board and lay the groundwork for a season-ticket deposit campaign. I wanted the board to reflect our community yet also speak to the business assets a team needs to support the fan experience. So let’s talk beer and bats!
Two invaluable relationships were developed that, to this day, are very meaningful to me. I approached Kichesippi Beer Company about the interest of serving local craft beer at future games. Craft beer at the ballpark was a no-brainer and once I met owner and president Paul Meek at Kichesippi, I knew this was the partnership for us. The care and compassion that the Meek family places into every product and customer experience inspired me, and our natural chemistry made Paul a perfect fit for our board. I also called Arlene Anderson, president and co-owner of the iconic SamBat. The story of Sam Holman is fascinating and about our community. Sam learned to make maple bats by borrowing books from the Ottawa Public Library and making them out of his garage just west of downtown. Now based in Carleton Place, SamBat provided great leadership for the Champions franchise.
A good friend and community leader, Doug McLarty, came on board with his team to support the financial administration of a season-ticket deposit drive as it was time for us to test the real support in the community. We launched the season-ticket drive in March 2012 and hosted several community events to drive support, including a business drive to benefit local charities and a Parliament Hill event at the Canadian Brewers Association.
It was a priority that the Champions initiative give back to incredible causes in our city that are on the front line every day, making a difference for us all. To start, we announced corporate packages for local businesses as part of the season-ticket deposit drive to support local charities, but it was not until the moment I met the Desrochers family in July 2012 that I made charitable giving not just the most important part of the Champions initiative, but the legacy of my time in local baseball.
The Miracle League is a US-based charity that collaborates with local communities to establish barrier-free and inclusive sport facilities for children and youth with special needs. On a beautiful Saturday afternoon, I was at Doug Frobel Field in Nepean to observe a Challenger Little League game and I met Michelle and Rolly Desrochers and their son, Bryce, who has cerebral palsy.
Challenger baseball is played on a typical surface that has grass, dirt, gravel, and long, narrow rectangular dugouts. As I listened to the Desrochers explain the barriers for the special needs players, I could see firsthand how the kids were struggling to participate. Michelle and Rolly introduced me to their dream of establishing a Miracle Field in our community. It was a clear gap in our city as a facility of this nature—a baseball field that had a cork/rubberized surface, large box square-shaped dugouts with broken-up benches, and fully accessible washrooms and change rooms—did not exist.
I noticed the kids were really struggling to enjoy the game—walkers and wheelchairs are not meant for grass or gravel surfaces, plus they could not sit with their friends in the dugout and these barriers prevented enjoyable experiences. As I spoke to Rolly and Michelle about the Miracle League vision, Bryce disappeared with his father into their minivan. Afterward, Rolly told me that Bryce had to go to the bathroom in the van because the washrooms next to the ball field were locked on weekends. I still remember this moment as more than baseball; it was a call to service and an immediate sense of how we can work together to elevate our collective human dignity, especially for these children and youth.
This was a moment to not just help level the playing field, but work with the Desrochers to support hundreds of children in Ottawa with special needs. I served as the volunteer president of the Miracle League of Ottawa with a group of dedicated volunteers and community activists who genuinely believe that human dignity is at the core of who we are as people in Ottawa. Later that winter, we launched a fundraising campaign to secure $2 million to retrofit an existing baseball field at Notre-Dame-des-Champs Park in Orleans. This field was allocated to the Miracle League by the City of Ottawa with Council’s support under the Community Partnership Major Capital Program for a 50/50 share of the total project cost to modernize the space to make it fully inclusive. To this day, I remain so grateful to the city staff and leadership who supported the Desrochers. We raised the necessary funds in just two and a half years and in August 2015, the Miracle Field of Ottawa was officially unveiled with our inaugural donors such as the Rotary Clubs Ottawa, the Friends of the Mer Bleue Inc., JaysCare Foundation, Malhotra Family Foundation, Telus Community Fund, Kraft, The Trillium Foundation, Trinity Developments, and more.
On a beautiful summer afternoon in May 2013, we announced a very successful season-ticket deposit drive with 3,100 deposits prior to a Kanata Little League game on Scott Tokessy Field. This leverage fostered our credibility to help the city work on ownership interests to negotiate a lease agreement with the city and ideally, secure local ownership. It was an incredibly interesting time to be at the table discussing the business of baseball!
As the discussions evolved with multiple interests, it became apparent that the return of an affiliated franchise was just not tangible due to a variety of factors, namely the public ownership of the ballpark and its aging infrastructure. In the mid 1990s, concrete may have been the norm, but the twenty-first century trend is for open spaces for families and fans and easily accessible concourses for more concessions and merchandise sales. Proponents also conducted public opinion polling/surveys in the community to demonstrate knowledge and awareness of a professional baseball team and the level of support for a new Double-A franchise. Not surprisingly, the numbers were low and it deflated our momentum. However, the process meant City of Ottawa commitments to baseball with the new Tremblay Light Rail Station and connecting the LRT station to the ballpark with a brand-new pedestrian bridge over Highway 417 named in honor of the late Max Keeping. In addition, the city had committed to renovations beyond the lifestyle asset requirements.
I commend the city, the Beacon Group and several proponents for their engagement and passion to make a deal happen. However, the demands for public investments into modernizing the ballpark were not viable and while we were excited by the many bold visions of a new Ottawa ballpark with Jays AA baseball, the economics did not make sense.
Despite the loss of an affiliated franchise, we attracted the interest of Miles Wolff, the Commissioner of the Canadian-American Association of Professional Baseball, commonly known as the Can-Am League, an independent baseball league with teams in Quebec, New Jersey, and New York State. We believed Miles was a good fit with his past experience in our city, vast relationships in baseball as the “Godfather of Independent Baseball” and former owner of the Durham Bulls and founder of Baseball America. By September 2013, we had agreement on a 10-year lease of the Ottawa Baseball Stadium to establish a Can-Am League team for the 2015 season. I sat in the audience as council voted in favor of the lease agreement and it was an honor to speak to councillors one by one in the lead-up to the vote to emphasize the importance of this partnership to make baseball a strong community presence in Ottawa. A 10-year commitment from both sides was a statement for us all—baseball does have a place in the community. I served as the volunteer inaugural president with a small ownership stake and this was exactly the kind of role that I thought was critical for me to transition into following the Champions for Ottawa Baseball. It was essential now to bring all the Champions assets into the new franchise. We also needed a new team name, a cool engaging logo and brand, and time to continue to establish the corporate and community partnerships we’d started and identifying what assets in the ballpark we wanted to improve with the city’s funding. It was obvious priority number one was to bring Ottawa baseball into the twenty-first century with a video scoreboard.
Miles and I shared one core value and it was on the importance of the fan experience. My philosophy was that in order to make money, we had to spend money and these investments would not only act to generate profits, but build a positive reputation in the community through fans and our partners. As a volunteer president, I had the responsibility to build a unique and positive reputation in the city. We had to move beyond the status quo and baseball deserved a fresh new look and approach. We named the team the “Ottawa Champions” in June 2014 in recognition of our team culture of celebrating our community, our people, our neighborhood, our businesses, our charities, and our collective identity of being champions of one another. I wanted the ballpark to be transformed into a community gathering space for families, colleagues, and neighbors to enjoy baseball but, more importantly, quality time together. By August, we unveiled our new logo and brand with prominent blues, reds, and whites with a full nostalgic nudge to the Montreal Expos.
The momentum was building for us—we had key wins over 2014 as we prepared for Opening Day on May 22, 2015. We signed business partnerships with SamBat, Kichesippi Beer, Clocktower Brewery, Gabriel Pizza, La Cage Aux Sports, Ottawa Hydro, and a huge win with a naming rights partnership with Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton thanks to Pat Whelan at Extension Marketing. I attended the 2014 Can-Am / American Association All-Star Game in Winnipeg, Manitoba. A success story in independent baseball is Winnipeg under the leadership of former Winnipeg mayor Sam Katz and his general manager, Andrew Collier. Andrew was a valuable source of support and guidance to me as I onboarded into my volunteer presidency role. In Winnipeg, ownership meetings confirmed Ottawa to host the Can-Am / American Association mid-summer classic in 2017 as part of the prominent Canada 150th birthday celebrations. I felt the All-Star game had a place on the roster of key events, and this would be a unique opportunity for us to attract tourism and interest given the markets of teams from Quebec, New York State, and the American Midwest. We were not afraid to put our best foot forward in the community despite the naysayers on the potential we lacked to succeed over the long term.
In November 2014, we introduced our inaugural manager and player in Hal Lanier and Sébastien Boucher, respectively. Seb joined us via a trade with the Quebec Capitales with his unique story as a local youth drafted into major-league baseball by the Seattle Mariners. As a kid, Seb would watch Ottawa Lynx games from Coventry Road, dreaming of becoming a major-league baseball player, and to this day, Seb remains involved in the game and championing youth in sport for their development and leadership.
Hal Lanier played baseball as a member of the San Francisco Giants with such icons as Willie Mays, Juan Marichal, and Willie McCovey. Following his playing career, Hal coached for the St. Louis Cardinals and helped them win the 1982 World Series. As manager of the Houston Astros from 1986 to 1988, he was named National League Manager of the Year in 1986. Meeting Hal and learning about the game was one of the main highlights of my time with the Champions. I spent quality time with Hal behind the batting cage watching players take their cuts, listening to his stories about Roberto Clemente, Yogi Berra, and other stars of the game. But when Hal spoke about his father, another baseball player, Max Lanier, the passion was never as strong. Hal is a close friend to this day and has taught me important leadership lessons. I have long admired the management philosophy of former Expo and recent manager of the Cleveland Guardians, Terry Francona who is well-regarded as a “players manager.” I finally developed a sense of that reputation observing Hal who led us with gratitude, patience, and a focus on the wellness of the players. I valued the post-game beer and team performance debrief in Hal’s office, learning about the game with his wisdom,
May 22, 2015 will be a date that will be forever in my memory—it was the Ottawa Champions franchise inaugural game in the Can-Am League and despite the cool evening, the community warmed up the atmosphere. Andrew Werner, our Ace, threw the inaugural pitch in Champions history, and we went on to beat the Sussex County Miners, 8-1. It was a night of celebration, humility and I was proud of our success to this point. Werner threw a great game, striking out four while giving up three hits, one earned run, and two walks in five innings before being replaced by reliever and a great guy, Dan Meyer.
Our inaugural season had many exciting highlights, including the engaging series versus the Cuban national team and the Japanese Shikoku Island League team. The international series broke up a monotonous schedule for our fans as there were a lot of repeat visits from the small Can-Am teams, so any new teams from the international leagues or American Association were always of interest to our fans. We saw incredible engagement for the Cuban and Japanese series with their local communities attending and the ambassadors and their embassies hosting the players for receptions.
We finished in fifth place with a 46-50 record, and we saw developing chemistry between our community and the key leaders of our franchise, led by manager Lanier, pitching coach Billy Horn, coach Jared Lemieux, and Sébastien, as well as players like Wilmer Font, Bryce Massanari, Roberto Ramirez, Danny Grauer, Josh Blanco, Alan DeRatt, Chris Winder, Corey Caswell, and Daniel Bick. They all engaged to win baseball games and connect with fans and the community. I felt we were growing a strong internal core to build on for the long term. 2016 proved to be a crucial year for us—when the players arrived for spring training, we gathered at the iconic Chateau Lafayette in the Byward Market with the mayor, players, fans, and our friends at Kichesippi brewery to launch “Champions Light,” a beer made exclusively for sale at the ballpark during the 2016 season.
The season continued the tradition of hosting two international series with the Cubans and the Shikoku Island team. The Cuban series broke our attendance records, and – a fun fact: a young Cuban player who played in Ottawa is now an All-Star slugger with the Chicago White Sox—Luis Robert Jr!
I traveled to St. Paul, Minnesota, with our all-stars Austin Chrismon and Daniel Cordero to enjoy the All-Star Game hosted by the St. Paul Saints and throw out the “last pitch” of the game to transition the annual game to Ottawa in 2017. I was able to observe how meaningful independent baseball is to the Midwest US markets with local ownership, loyal fan bases, and deep corporate support. These were all aspects that we had to have in Ottawa to sustain our franchise over the long term.
During the 2016 season, we had a good sense that we were going to be competitive over the stretch running into the playoffs despite losing ace Wilmer Font to the Toronto Blue Jays. My story of Wilmer Font is one of humility and pride. As an inaugural member of our rotation over a season and a half, Wilmer made an impression. He struck out 142 batters for us over two seasons (2015/16) and was signed by the Jays in 2016 and spent time with the Dodgers, Athletics, and Rays. I caught up with Wilmer in Tampa Bay in April 2019 and as we stood on the field at Tropicana Field, he thanked me for the Champions and credited his time in Ottawa for really improving his game and pitching, and now, he was in “The Show.” Later that season, I cheered him on in person in Toronto as he stood on the mound pitching against the mighty New York Yankees in front of 33,903 fans as he got Aaron Judge to fly out and struck out Gary Sanchez and DJ LeMahieu. Talk about a personal bucket list moment where all roads led to that moment of purpose and meaning.
As we continued the 2016 season, we knew our team had the necessary chemistry to win games, have fun, and believe that a Championship was within our reach! While the strategy was simply to mature our fan base, strengthen loyalty, and grow awareness in the community, winning games and watching the players excel was a bonus! Great players like Austin Chrismon, Daniel Cordero, Danny Grauer, Jason Coker, Matt Helms, Miles Moeller, Daniel Bick, Kenny Bryant, Andrew Cooper, Albert Cartwright, and more made the season a thrilling one to follow. By mid-August, Hal and his coaches were focused on September baseball. We qualified for the playoffs and easily beat the New Jersey Jackals three games to one. It was mid-September and a beautiful late summer season as we faced the Rockland Boulders for the Can-Am Championship with two home games to start the best-of-five series. We dropped these two games, and all of the positive momentum from the end of the season and the NJ series was gone. Our team was to travel to Rockland in New York State to play the deciding games in the series. Following our Game Two loss, I took the microphone and spoke to the several thousand fans left and told them to believe in this team and this city. We needed three back-to-back-to-back wins and with our rotation, bats, and an enduring optimism, we knew we could be the champions our community needed.
We took Games Three and Four, and I traveled to Rockland for the deciding Game Five along with a dedicated group of fans from Ottawa. Game Five was as exciting as you would imagine it. Kenny Bryant got us started in the first inning with a two-run single off the glove of second baseman Pat McKenna, and from there, we had the momentum. As I watched the game (the longest game ever in my life!), I felt that momentum from the early days of 2012 when this journey started. In the eighth inning, Kenny Bryant gave us the insurance run, a monster home run to right field that bounced off the concourse, and with Austin Chrismon pitching a complete game, allowing only one earned run and striking out eight, we became the Champions. Michael Nellis, broadcasting the game live on CKDG-FM, became the official voice of the 2016 Champions with this final out call that has become legend in our community!
A championship brought incredible moments from hoisting the Can-Am Trophy on the field with the team and our coaches, seeing the fans after at the official celebration the day after at the Clocktower Pub and the city hosting a community rally for us with councillors and our fans. It was exhilarating and liberating, and while I was very humbled by the support, I felt a profound sense of validation for all the work that we had done as a community together to deliver a team and then build the necessary resources and support to have a unique moment like this.
Sébastien Boucher and I appeared on CBC’s Our Ottawa the week following the Championship, and Adrian Harewood posed a question that was on everyone’s mind—that this victory was improbable. That was a metaphor for our place in this moment and Ottawa history. Generally, the city did not expect us to survive financially, let alone win a championship against the Rockland Boulders, a Can-Am powerhouse in those days.
This was a crucial time for the franchise—fans were engaged, our brand and identity were growing, our on-field leadership with Hal Lanier was never stronger, we had a championship that fostered legitimacy in the community and across the game, our official charity, the Miracle League of Ottawa, was now open and fully functional, meaning hundreds of kids and youth were enjoying baseball fully, and for the next season, we would host the All-Star Game. We had also won “Can-Am Field of the Year” recognition, and that was due to the incredible work by Guy Vaillancourt and his team of grounds crew that kept the field shining as our impeccable North Star in the community.
With some key pillars in place now, the strategy moved to local ownership. We wanted this momentum to generate discussions on individuals or corporate interests that would invest in making baseball more sustainable and present in our community. However, despite our successes to date, we could not capture the imagination of well-known sport or business leaders to secure ownership. From the moment the team was incorporated, local ownership was the long-term goal, but it was never clearly or coherently planned, managed, or executed. As the 2017 season wore on and we enjoyed the All-Star Game and associated festivities, a repeat playoff run was clearly not in the picture for us. Being the president of the Ottawa Champions was a purely volunteer role, and I was feeling that I had taken my leadership as far as I could following the 2017 season and I wanted to focus my energies on my growing family with my wife, Danielle, and my career. On February 16, 2018, six years to the day after I launched the Champions for Ottawa Baseball organization, I announced my resignation as president. Sadly, the team folded officially following the 2019 season, as did the entire Can-Am League, and now, the Champions are a part of Ottawa baseball and professional sports history. My story of the Ottawa Champions Baseball Club is not one of balls and strikes, wins and losses, or even the 2016 championship. It’s not about records set or the size of the crowd at any given game, nor another folded franchise. Instead, this story is about community and the people who enjoyed Champions baseball. I believe to this day the future of professional baseball is affiliated Single-A or Double-A baseball with the parking pushed underground and above the parking surface, a new community “building up” with commercial/retail businesses and a reduced baseball park seat footprint. We don’t need 10,000 seats for minor-league affiliated baseball in Ottawa and it takes courage to move forward on a plan to reduce that footprint to meet a more realistic demand for baseball. But, if it puts an end to the endless discussion about crowds and attendance, it will be worth the reward to have sustainable baseball in Ottawa.
My gratitude to every person who bought a ticket, a hot dog, a t-shirt or cap, cheered on a home run or stolen base, and took a moment to enjoy Ottawa Champions baseball. I am humbled by all those who worked with me on a vision to bring the community to the ballpark and, in turn, the ballpark into all of our neighborhoods. I am proud of the small wins. We did them as a team and showed how when we all work together, we can succeed.
is the Chief Executive Officer of the Shepherds of Good Hope Foundation, having joined in 2020. David’s role fits a career that is characterized by a passion for people, relationships and building the community he was born, raised and lives in—Ottawa. David had a 10+ year career in the private sector following a 15-year career in the Government of Canada and the City of Ottawa. He has served on the Board of Directors for the Ottawa Public Library, the Ottawa Community Housing Foundation and the Ottawa Sport Council. David established the Ottawa Champions Baseball Club and proudly co-founded the Miracle League of Ottawa to provide children with special needs a fully accessible and inclusive baseball facility in Orléans. In June 2009, David received an Ottawa Business Journal “40Under40” Award and in 2014, he became a Member of the Order of Ottawa. In 2022, he was recognized as AFP Ottawa’s Outstanding Fundraising Executive. David lives in Kanata with his wife Danielle and their two children.
Notes
1 Ken Burns, Baseball (New York: PBS, 1994), episode 5.
2 James Kerr, Legacy: What The All Blacks Can Teach Us About The Business Of Life (London: Constable & Robinson, 2013).