Harold is married to Barb. They have three children who all have put their own mark on the sport of baseball. Dustin and Chad both played junior college at Indian Hills, Iowa and completed their collegiate careers at Northwestern Louisiana in NCAA Division 1. Heidi played on Team Alberta for many years bur her most impressive accomplishment was representing Team Canada on the world stage for seven years. All three spent one year each playing in the Australian Summer League.
Coaching Career at the Provincial & National Team Level
From 1992 – 1994, Harold was selected as the Canadian National Youth Team (16 – 18) pitching coach and had three notable pitchers make it to the Major Leagues in Jordan Zimmermann, Ryan Dempster and Eric Gagne.
1998 – 2001, he moved to the Canadian National Senior Team where he coached with Ernie Whitt in the ’99 Pan American Games where Canada won its first ever medal in the Games.
Harold has coached at the Canada Games in 1997, Bronze (first medal for Alberta since the 1967 inception of the Canada Games); in 2001, 4th place; in 2009 (as Head Coach), silver medal (this was the first time Alberta played in the Gold medal game); and 2017, bronze.
Harold has also coached the Canada Cup team: in 1991; 2005 (bronze); 2007 (4-2 record); 2008 (5-2 record).
Harold was General Manager for the 2007 Western Canada Games (Gold); 2009 Canada Cup (4th place)
In 2006, he was the Pitching Coach for the Bantam Team Alberta Female Division, where they won the Gold Medal at the National Championships (first time a Team Alberta has ever won a national championship – male or female).
Collegiate and National Team Playing Career
Harold was a four-year letterman with one year at Big Bend Community College, in Moses Lake, Washington and three years at Eastern Oregon State College, La Grande, Oregon where he received his Bachelor of Science.
At the National Team level he played for Team Canada in 1980, 1985-1987. In 1987 he represented Canada in the Pan American Games and qualified for the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, South Korea.
Club Team Player Accomplishments
Over his playing career he has won seven Provincial Championships, four Western Canadian Championships and one National Championship.
Coaching Career at Club Team
His coaching career began in 1988 in St. Paul where he won the first ever Midget “AA” Provincial championship in 1989, over the four years he was in St. Paul (1988-1991) he won a gold and two silver medals in Provincial play coaching teams in two divisions.
He continued his coaching career in Rocky Mountain House from 1995 to 2012 (minus 2007–2009 when he was the Provincial Head Coach for AABC).
Over the years Harold was on the coaching staff of several senior men’s teams such as the Edmonton Blue Willow Angels and the Red Deer Riggers.
In 2003, he took the Rocky Bantam Diamondbacks to a Provincial Gold and Western Canadian Championship Gold. In 2005 he was added to the Sherwood Park “AAA” midget team as the pitching coach where the team won a National Championship (the first time ever a Midget club team from Alberta won a national championship).
Other
2018/19 – Pitching Coach for the Red Deer “AAA” 18U Braves
1988 – 2021– Instructor for baseball clinics across Alberta
Notable Achievements
2007 -2009 – Provincial Head Coach for the Alberta Amateur Baseball Council
2001 – 2008 Appointed Technical Chair for the Alberta Amateur Baseball Council
1988 – Most Valuable Player in the Senior Western Canadian Baseball Championships
1985 – Team Canada – Intercontinental Cup – Most Valuable Canadian Player
1984, 85 & 86 – Eastern Oregon State College – set team win record in each season 32, 34, 39 wins respectively
- First Eastern Oregon State pitcher in school history (NAIA) to beat Washington State University (NCAA Division 1). Won two games against PAC 10 Universities (nicknamed “The Giant Killer”)
- Personal pitching stats 18 – 9 Win/Loss record
1983 – Big Bend Community College – MVP Pitcher in Washington/Oregon Crossover Tournament
