Thunder Bay Border Cats name Joe Ellison as new field manager

The Thunder Bay Border Cats have a new field manager.

The team announced on Thursday that Joe Ellison is taking on the role for the 2025 Northwoods League season.

"It's exciting," Eillison said in an interview with CBC News. "I mean, to be a part of the only Canadian team in the Northwoods League is something pretty special, and to be Canadian and to have an opportunity to do this is very cool."

Ellison is currently the recruiting coordinator and pitching coach at the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma, and spent the last two seasons as head coach of the Fort McMurray Giants of the Western Canadian Baseball League, a collegiate summer league.

From 2012 to 2022, Ellison was with the Ontario Blue Jays junior program, holding the titles of general manager, head coach, pitching coast, director of baseball operations, and recruiting coordinator.

Ellison takes over the Border Cats field manager role from JM Kelly, who left the team after accepting a head coaching position with Dodge City Community College in Kansas.

"There's a lot of positive steps taken in the last two years," Eillison said. "I know JM did a great job, and the team did a fair amount of winning this year, and I know they were in the hunt there the back end of the season, which is exciting."

"The main goal of the team will be to bring back returners who want to be a part of the the Border Cats, and then add in as much Canadian talent as we can," he said. "I'm lucky to have a lot of great ties in the country, and to be able to hopefully bring some of the best players that have moved from Canada to the US or to wherever to continue their collegiate career, back to Thunder Bay to compete in the Northwoods, would be really exciting."

Border Cats Vice-President Bryan Graham said Ellison "really checked all the boxes that we were looking for."

"Joe's very familiar, obviously, with trying to recruit, and obviously trying to recruit to an area, in Fort McMurray, which is a little bit more north and a little bit more maybe isolated, even in that league, like Thunder Bay is in the Northwoods League," he said. "He knows the challenge is there a little bit when it comes to recruiting."