Who makes the best playlists on your team?
Both: Not [Andrew Vander Veen]!
Prevost: He’s got good AUX, it’s just repetitive. I take a lot of my music from him but I hate it.
Cleland: You’re going to get a lot of good songs from him … and you’re also going to want to pull your hair out sometimes.
Who was the most welcoming when you joined the team in first-year?
Cleland: Let’s see, Ty Hall was awesome, Jack Ray, Dylan Merritt, Blake Badger. Those are the guys I remember when we first came in that really welcomed us. There’s too many to name. It all happened so fast … just a couple years ago, I was the rookie that didn’t know anyone, now I’m one of the older guys that gets to tell younger guys what to do and whatnot.
Prevost: Badger, Lewis Antonuk, Lane Grunerud is another name. We had them all last year which was nice for our second year, and we ended up winning the championship which is special. That whole group of leaders who we came in with all left [this season]. So we’re trying to step up a bit … Now these rookies come in [and] we’ve felt where they are, they’re all nervous, and it’s nice to welcome them and be the leaders.
What’s it like to play for Riley Jepson as a coach?
Cleland: [Jepson] changed the whole culture. The biggest thing is he makes [us] feel confident, he believes in every single guy. He makes a personal connection with everyone. [We’re] never worried about messing up with him, because he understands.
Prevost: [He’s] a player’s coach, he’s had this experience before. He knows how it is to be a student athlete. He’s one of the boys … but he’s not … he’s a coach, obviously. We look up to him [and] we respect him; everyone wants to play for him and play for each other because of him. That was really what brought us the championship last year.
As roommates, who’s cooking dinner most nights?
Cleland: We’re pretty good in the kitchen, but we do a lot of repetition. Breakfast wraps every morning, and then dinners will always be burritos or pasta, tacos, chicken, all that stuff.
Prevost: We’re excited to go down to Phoenix and crush an In-N-Out, but a lot of fast food too out here, which is unfortunate.
What was the championship journey like last season?
Prevost: We play exhibition games against college teams as well as high school teams, just to get some games in, [but] last year in exhibition, I don’t think we beat a college team. But we had a great winter, and the spring was excellent. We finished first or second in the league, and went on a run.
Cleland: Another big game was in Kelowna … We had an 11-nothing lead, somehow blew it, and then we were down three runs bottom of the ninth, and somehow came back and ended up winning that one. It just showed we don’t give up, [we’re] gritty, and keep the foot on the gas.
Was there a turning point?
Cleland: Our first year, we played a really good school, Phoenix College, and they pumped us back-to-back games. Then last year when we played them again we were kind of thinking, oh, here we go again. But we locked in and gave it our all and ended up beating them. It was a really awesome game.
Prevost: It kind of ruined their season [too], by losing to an unranked Canadian team who no one knows. They didn’t make play-offs because of it.
Q&A has been edited for length and readability.
