Team Canada's Alli Schroder chases adrenaline highs on the baseball field and fighting wildfires in B.C.
Schroder works as B.C. forest fire fighter when not playing for national women's team
Baseball season is "one adrenaline high to the next" for Team Canada's Alli Schroder.
Schroder is in Thunder Bay, Ont., this week for the 2023 Women's Baseball World Cup Qualifiers, taking the field at third base, pitcher and designated hitter for the national squad.
Through the team's first three games, she's been a key part of the team's offence, scoring two runs in Team Canada's 22-3 win over Hong Kong. However, she was kept scoreless in two at-bats during Canada's 23-0 loss to the United States on Thursday night.
Overall, as of Thursday, Schroder is batting .286 during the qualifiers, with two hits in seven at-bats, one RBI, and three runs scored; she also has a perfect 0.00 ERA after two innings pitched.
And when she's not playing ball, Schroder, from Fruitvale, B.C., is suiting up for the B.C. Wildfire Service, helping fight forest fires in her home province.
"You get a rush when you go into a big wildfire, and I get a rush when I get put into a big game," Schroder told CBC News in a recent interview. "It's just kind of chasing the next adrenaline rush."
And this fire season is a tough one in B.C., like it is across Canada, Schroder said.
"We're having a record-breaking season," she said. "I think it's now the worst season on record in BC. We've been going since May, and probably gonna be going til October," she said.
This summer has been the worst wildfire season in Canadian history by several metrics, according to federal officials. More than 3,000 fires have been recorded, consuming more than 8.8 million hectares, displacing almost 5,000 people across Canada.
British Columbia has seen some of the biggest fires in Canada this summer, and it hasn't slowed down in August. Temperatures are still in the high 30s as roughly 400 fires continue to burn in the province, with 200 considered out-of-control, according to the latest update from B.C. fire officials.
The fires this season have been intense, displaying behaviour the crews having seen before, Schroder said.
"A lot more rank six wildfires that are just destroying our forests," she said. "We've been really lucky infrastructure-wise. We're at four deployments now, and we're only halfway through the season," Schroder said. "It's a lot of accumulative fatigue."
But Schroder said she still finds time to practice, even when she's on duty in the B.C. woods.
"It's more or less bringing a baseball glove and some J-Bands to a fire camp and finding a fence," she said. "I have one ball and I'll throw it against a fence to mimic long toss."
"It's more like maintenance now, not so much peaking or getting a whole lot better, but just keeping my body where it is and where it needs to be."
Team Canada head coach Anthony Pluta said while it's a challenge for Schroder to work as a firefighter while playing for the national team, "we've never been worried about her being ready."
"We know her grit, we know how hard she works, we know what her heart's like, and she's gonna come out and compete and give us everything she has no matter what."
Schroder got her start in baseball early, since it was "the thing to do, pretty much" in her town.
"I had a really good core group there that encouraged me to keep playing," she said. "I was going to school with the guys there, so it's just the sport that's stuck with me."
And working as a forest fire fighter has helped Schroder on the field.
"When I was younger, I had a hard time with the mental side of the game," she said. "One error would beat me up and that was end of the game. I'd be mad."
"But now coming back from wildfire, it's like I've just been working 16-hour days on the fire line, like grinding in the dry, hot heat, and now I get to be here with all my best friends and play baseball, which is the game I love. If there's pressure in a situation, I'm just like 'I've had 10-times more pressure in previous weeks."
But leaving her crew in BC to come to play baseball in Thunder Bay is a bit bittersweet, as well, Schroder said.
"For me, it's like one family to the next," she said. "My unit crew's my family, this team's my family. But it's definitely hard knowing they're gonna be back out and I'm going to be here playing baseball, which I'm trying to be like a little bit easier on myself with because life happens and people have other things to go to other than work."
"At the end of the day, it is a job," Schroder said. "It's a little bit bittersweet for sure, but it's always nice to have that family to come back to. I know I'll be going back to them."