Cloverdale Rangers raise national championship banner in Surrey
Published 9:30 pm Monday, April 27, 2026
The Cloverdale Rangers recently raised a national championship banner at Hillcrest Park.
The banner, affixed to the backstop of the 18U diamond, was unveiled in front of players, parents, friends, and baseball volunteers ahead of a game there April 18.
The Cloverdale Rangers 18U College Prep baseball team won the 2025 title in August last year at nationals in Fort McMurray, Alberta. The win capped off an amazing season, said Bob Foerster, the GM for the Cloverdale Rangers High Performance Baseball Program.
During a short ceremony and unveiling, Foerster thanked those in attendance, honoured the team from last year, and also thanked the Cloverdale Minor Baseball Association board members for allowing him to create the elite Rangers program.
“It’s exciting for the players, exciting for the program, and exciting for Cloverdale,” Foerster said of the national title win. “Kudos to the coaches and kudos to the players. It’s an amazing accomplishment for the program. The competition was very difficult to play against. It’s almost indescribable.”
For a program that was only in its third year in 2025, it is quite the accomplishment, he added. Foerster said the program is further ahead of schedule than he thought it would be in year three.
He said the Rangers program has elevated development in three short years by improving its coaching and offering consistency across three different age groups: 18U, 15U, and 13U.
“Our program is being noticed, and it’s now confirmed,” he added. “We’re a legitimate, elite program the kids can play in if they want to try to excel at the next level.”
Foerster noted the coaching staff and program is now nationally known as a program that develops players. He said several of the kids on the team are in baseball academies this year and several more have gone on to play baseball at post-secondary schools.
“Our coaching staff is one of the best in B.C. Minor (Baseball), if not the province.”
Foerster said people across teh entire program are looking forward to a “great” 2026 baseball season.
Mike Dance, head coach of the Rangers’ national winning team, said the victory still hasn’t sunk in.
“After six months, I still don’t know that I have the words to describe it,” Dance said. “It was really an honor to coach these kids.”
He said he’s coached many of the players since they played in 8U and 9U.
“I have a kid that was part of that group—so, I’ve really gotten to know a bunch of these players on more of a personal level, the parents on more of a personal level,” he said. “So being able to win it with that team, as opposed to some of the other teams I’ve coached, makes it incredibly special.”
Dance added the win has fueled him to get back to the playoffs this year in an effort to do it again—albeit with a different team. All the players from last year have graduated from the program.
He noted Rangers elite development has elevated baseball in Cloverdale above where it would have been without the high performance program being implemented.
“It’s streamlined the style of play, the culture, the coaching, all that sort of stuff within Cloverdale,” he explained. “We’ve always had high performance teams, but it’s always been disjointed.”
Having the Rangers program come along, he said, has tied everything together.
“It allows those kids that are playing in 13U to be able to see a pathway to 15U and 18 U. Then that may lead to post-secondary play and things of that nature.”
For more info on the Cloverdale Rangers high performance elite program, visit cloverdalerangers.com.