By Carlie Sanderson for The Pipestone Flyer
Baseball player Matt Coutney of Wetaskiwin got quite the exciting news earlier this month. He was taken in the 10th round of the MLB draft by the Los Angeles Angels and was the 298th pick.
He says it still hasn’t hit him.
“It was a pretty awesome moment. I’m still stuck in Canada right now waiting for my work visa, so it still hasn’t sunken in yet because I’m not down at the facility yet.”
Coutney is hoping to be in Arizona, which is where the Angels have their spring training facility, in the next week.
“I’m sure once I get down to Arizona everything is going to sink in and put everything into perspective that you really did this.”
The first base player attended Old Dominion University in Virginia for three years as opposed to two because of the pandemic and played baseball for the Monarchs while there.
“We got an extra year of eligibility because it cut our season short the one year in 2020, so I ended up spending the three years there and then luckily enough I played good enough to get a chance to get picked up and drafted,” said Coutney.
While in school, Coutney double majored in business management and leadership.
He said when it comes to making the transition from Wetaskiwin to playing ball in a whole different place, the big adjustment will be the culture, as many of his teammates are Hispanic or Latino.
Coutney will be playing minor league baseball with the goal of making it to the big leagues.
“It’s going to take a few years to get to the big leagues.”
Coutney will be heading to Arizona on his own, without knowing anyone.
“I’m going to be a long ways from home but it’s a lot closer being on the west coast than it is from the east coast when I was down in school in Virginia.”
He will take place in mini camp with the others who were drafted and then go off to one of the affiliate ball locations.