Exeter’s Brett Reid joins Laurier baseball team after two college championships in B.C.
One of the best pitchers to emerge from Exeter Minor Ball is ready for the OUA.
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As a freshman relief pitcher for the Okanagan College Coyotes, Brett Reid (Exeter, Ont.) battled the nerves and uncertainty that might be expected of a small-town kid adapting to a new team thousands of kilometres from home.
His nerves settled with time, and by his final season Reid was a two-time national champion and an effective part of the Okanagan starting rotation, with a laudable 3.45 career ERA.
But the Exeter Minor Ball product tried to never forget the anxiety of those early days.
“I tried to leave my mark on the program as not only a pitcher, but also a leader,” said Reid, an Exeter Public School and South Huron District High School grad.
“It was important to me [to mentor younger players], because it's easy to forget that you were in that kid's shoes … I'd rather be an older player that takes a kid under his wing and explains how to do things the right way.”
Reid is one of the best players to emerge from Exeter in the last two decades, though he graduated to the London Badgers AAA team at age 11 and later played for the Great Lakes Canadians — an elite amateur program that has produced multiple Major League draft picks.
He was part of a top-seeded Okanagan team that won back-to-back national championships at the Canadian College World Series in 2022 and 2021.
Okanagan is affiliated with the University of British Columbia (UBC), so Reid was able to earn a bachelor’s degree in political science from UBC while playing for the college team.
He’s also pitched for the Kitchener Panthers of the Inter-County Baseball League this summer, and plans join the Wilfrid Laurier University varsity team later this year, while working toward a master’s degree in applied politics.
“It's definitely going to be a bit of an adjustment coming to a new program as an older player,” said Reid, 23, whose parents David Reid and Cheryl Masson are both partners in the Little, Masson and Reid law firm in Exeter.
“But my goal is to hopefully be a starting pitcher, and one of the main contributors — and while doing that, still have that positive impact on younger players, talking gameplan with younger players and doing all the sorts of things I did out in B.C.”
Though Reid spent five years at university in British Columbia, the baseball season was cancelled during two of those years, leaving him two remaining years of eligibility.
This will likely be his final season at the post-secondary level, and after finishing his master’s Reid said he hopes to work in policy analysis with a focus on community development and housing initiatives.
He also plans to write the LSATs and apply to law school.
As he enters a new phase in his career, Reid acknowledged the role Exeter played in his development as a pitcher and as a person.
“Every Exeter team I played for had really talented players,” he said. “I met some of my best friends — that are still my best friends, for life — through Exeter baseball.
“We would walk to the field, take ground balls and do those sorts of things that I don't think you can really do in a big city. There was probably less team bonding with those city teams than the type of groups that I played with, with my friends in Exeter.”
Thousands of kilometres from here, in the carefully manicured fields of B.C.’s lower mainland,
Reid’s fluence as a mentor may still be felt.
“In college baseball, you never want to go through a rebuild,” said Reid. “You always want to be a competitive program, especially at Okanagan. We established ourselves as one of the best teams year in, year out.
“So obviously, as a senior player, you're looking at the program, thinking — who's going to take the next step, who's going to jump into the graduating players' shoes … so even though we're gone, the program remains strong.
“We can look back on that and [know] Okanagan College is a powerhouse for years.”