Caledon Minor Baseball Association’s 2026 Awards Ceremony honors 20 players, coaches, volunteers, umpires, and lifetime achievements 

By Jim Stewart

More than 125 attendees enjoyed the Caledon Minor Baseball Association's 2026 Awards Ceremony at the Caledon Seniors Centre on Thursday evening.

CMBA President Mike Wallace praised the people at the centre of the thriving sports organization:  “My first official year is in the books and it's always great when you're working with good people.  It's definitely a great board and a great program.  The volunteers, coaches, umpires, and players—you can't say enough about them.” 

The baseball lifer, who coached the Bolton Brewers to the 2026 NDBL finals versus the New Lowell Knights in September, took his turn as a rep Bench Boss to develop the talents of the 14U Nationals.

Coach Wallace guided his promising group to a 42-38 record and discussed the highlights of the club's ambitious eighty-game season.

“We played in tournaments in Toronto, Vaughan, Caledon (14U), Caledon (15U), and we traveled to Sandusky, Ohio. We made a lot of Sundays, which was our tournament goal, and knocked off the reigning Ontario champs—the North York Blues—at the end of May at the Vaughan tournament. Our 13 players had a strong season, we played lots of exhibition games to gain more experience, and we're looking forward to moving up from AA to AAA next year to play in the 15U Elite High Performance Division.” 

The evening was all about applauding high performance exhibited by excellent players, supportive coaches, and selfless volunteers over the 2026 season.

In a meticulously-organized ceremony that featured concise speeches captured on video screens, CMBA executives took their turns handing out hardware and hugs to a range of recipients:  Max Da Costa (Rep Player of the Year 14U and above); Lucrezia Chiappetta (House League Volunteer of the Year); Nelia Louro (Board Volunteer of the Year); Jason Sweeney (Rep/Select Volunteer of the Year); Matthew Carinci (House League Coach of the Year); Andre Fenty (Select Coach of the Year); Greg Wright (Rep Coach of the Year 13U and under); Joe Amodeo (Rep Coach of the Year 14U and above); Ryker Forrester (Junior Umpire of the Year); Daniel Accardo (Senior Umpire of the Year); Adam Cola (Development Player of the Year); Charlie Martel (House League Player of the Year); Logan Dhuga, Noah Almeida, Isaac Gillespie, Lincoln Mastropieto, Nicholas Iannuzzi, and Julian Ferraro (Select Team of the Year—9U); Joe Amodeo (Coach of the Rep Team of the Year—18U); Lucas Todd (Select Player of the Year); Jacob Vitti (Rep  Player of the Year 13U and under); Connor Conti (Select Pitcher of the Year); Amy-Grace Belcourt (Rep Pitcher of the Year—13U and under); and Oscar Clayton (Rep Pitcher of the Year—14U and above).

After the 19 team and individual awards were meted out in a display of organizational efficiency, a Special Lifetime Member Award was presented to John Ruta by Umpire-in-Chief and long-time CMBA executive John Cooke who praised his colleague's contributions to the local baseball association as a President and a Coach.

Also recognized by Cooke was John Stegeman who was honored by the CMBA by renaming the Annual Rookie tournament to The Stegeman Classic, which will feature 8U and 9U players on May 21-23, 2027.

Cooke noted how important Stegeman was as a mentor. Stegeman seized the moment and the long-time Caledon coach and exec implored those present to “Be proud of what you've done.”

“There are people in this province who see Caledon in the upper echelon of Ontario baseball.  There's no place like home and that's Caledon.”

Stegeman's upbeat, impromptu address energized the audience as much as the good news that was delivered by VP of Rep and Select Jason Sweeney during the concluding portion of the AGM.  Coach Sweeney offered a concise summary of the Nationals' 2026 on-field accomplishments and observed that “the rapid expansion of our House League program provides the perfect development core for our Rep and Select program.”  

The veteran Nationals coach--who also serves as Head Coach of the Robert F. Hall Junior Wolfpack football team and varsity baseball team—praised “the Nationals 11U AAA team that lost narrowly in the OBA Finals and the five teams that advanced to the OBA's.”  Coach Sweeney pointed to the effectiveness of the “new 7U development program and the reestablishment of the 22U program” as positive developments in the CMBA's continuum of teams.

As a visual segue into 2027, the dynamic youth baseball organization unveiled its 60-year anniversary logo—distilled into a stylized 1967-2027 patch that will be affixed to all rep uniforms for the upcoming season-- to commemorate and celebrate six decades of baseball in Bolton and Caledon.