Baseball players are arriving to be part of the Nanaimo NightOwls’ inaugural season, and while they’ve secured their spot on the roster, some still need a place to call home this summer.
The city’s West Coast League team is reaching out to the community to try to find some more billet families for players. The college-age young men play a season that starts at the end of May and continues until early to mid August.
General manager Jim Swanson said teams around the WCL, as they search for host families, are discovering that a lot of people turned their spare rooms into home offices during the pandemic, creating a bit of an accommodations crunch.
He said being a host family can be a “lifelong friendship experience” for all involved and noted it’s a shorter-term commitment than with some other sports leagues.
“The guys do spend a fair amount of time on the road away, so there is a bit of a break for everybody,” he said. “Plus they’re only here for 65 days. That gives people a chance to get to know them and enjoy watching them play at the ballpark, but they’re also not with you for a full seven or eight months.”
For more information about becoming a host family, visit http://nanaimonightowls.com.
The team begins practising next week for the season, which begins May 31 on the road in Portland. The first home game is June 3 at Serauxmen Stadium versus the Edmonton Riverhawks. To purchase tickets, stop by the NightOwls’ temporary office at the Nanaimo Ice Centre Mondays through Saturdays from 11 a.m.-6 p.m.
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