The NightOwls had many successes in 2025 and will look to use the offseason to bring a playoff contender to Nanaimo next year. (Nanaimo NightOwls)

By Dan Marshall

End of Summer

NightOwls see continued growth in fourth year of West Coast League play

Aug 9, 2025 | 11:01 AM

NANAIMO — The Nanaimo NightOwls have had a successful four years of growing summer college baseball on the central island.

They’ve grown fan interest, helped to develop players, and have even seen players chosen in the Major League Baseball draft.

Cody Andrewychuk just finished his first season as head coach, and said it was a tremendous experience to coach in the West Coast League in his hometown.

“Our goal was to make he playoffs, but all our guys who came out here got the reps and the work they needed and they all got better. They’re all going back to their school in better shape, a lot of them had great summer’s highlights by a couple of guys who made the all-star game. We were averaging about 1400 fans, so that shows the community engagement and how much fun people were having at the ball park.”

Andreychuk said several walkoff victories at home were among the highlights of the season, as well as massive crowds for their July 1 game, and Jacob Hayes setting the NightOwls single-season home run record.

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“We had a record-setting game for Canada Day where we had more than 42 hundred people at Serauxmen Stadium. As for Hayes, he had an outstanding summer, and he hit ten home runs. Every time he came up to bat, Serauxmen Stadium got up on their feet waiting for him to do something special. He’ll be back for next year as well, he’s already told me that.”

Nanaimo’s league record was 23-31 this past season, and Andreychuk said a lot of factors were at play that hampered consistency.

“The team evolved so much throughout the year. There’s constant change with guys in and out and injuries. Having guys stay throughout the entire summer and finding guys that are going to stick it out and be consistent for us, we need to have more of those guys around.”

Having a strong presence in the community is important to Andreychuk, and he wants the NightOwls to continue to develop a love for baseball at the grassroots level.

“We ran some youth camps and got to give back to the community which is something I wanted to do, and we’ll keep doing that. The future is bright here and I’m super excited for next year.”

Andreychuk said the commitment of ownership to building a strong organization and the City of Nanaimo for investing in Serauxmen Stadium has made the NightOwls a popular destination for players.

Ninety percent of the current roster has expressed an interest in coming back in 2026.

As the club heads into year five, playoffs remain the goal, with the work on building an even stronger team starting shortly.

“This fall and winter we’ll be putting a roster together and recruiting new players. We’ll figure out the best plan of attack for this upcoming year, bringing in players and maybe doing some things a little bit differently. The plan is for all the same coaching staff to be back next year.”

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