Steve McGrail
For The Independent

Jason Helps grew up around the ball diamonds in Wyoming and was always hanging around the park watching his dad, Keith, play.
Helps and his brother, Jeff, would always have the inside scoop when a spontaneous game in an open field could happen or when things would move to the local tennis courts across the street from their house where a bucket of tennis balls would surface for the ever popular home run derbies.
Helps attended Wyoming Public School and then LCCVI. He played all the sports at Wyoming Public and hockey at LCCVI.
In the summer, Helps played baseball in the Wyoming Wrangler from tee ball up until his first year of Midget, then played for Kirk Barclay (also from Wyoming) with the Falcons which were based out of Petrolia/ and Courtright. He then played a year of junior in Sarnia for coach Bruce Gray (also of Wyoming). He then returned back to coach Barclay with the new Seahawks program. Jason won two OBA championships in 1993 and 1994 playing in Wyoming.
After graduating from LCCVI Helps received a scholarship to St. Clair College in Port Huron to continue his studies and baseball career. He earned a two year degree in Pre-Physiotherapy.
After two years at St. Clair, Helps had another scholarship offer to attend Central Michigan University. He graduated with his Bachelor of Science in Health and Fitness Degree with a Specialty in Cardiac Rehabilitation.
While playing shortstop for the Chippewas at Central Michigan, Helps enjoyed great success. He was named the NCAA National Player Of The Week. He earned Second Team All Star Honours for the highly competitive MAC conference. Helps is listed in CMU ‘s record books in the Top 10 for most HR’s in a season(15), RBI’s (59) in a season, Walks (39) in a season, and runs scored (61) in a season.
Helps and his brother, Jeff, are also in the top five for getting hit by a pitch most times in a season proving that they are willing to do what it takes to get on base and help their team.
Helps was a Letter winner in 2000-2001 and was also named Team MVP for the Chippewas in 2001.
In the summer months of his College years, he played one season for the London Majors and one season for the Michigan Monarchs.
After putting up great numbers at CMU in 2001, Helps was drafted in the 2001 MLB Amateur Draft selected 662nd overall by Florida in the 22nd round. He played in the Marlins farm system at various levels of Class A ball for two seasons. He played for the Utica Blue Sox, Jamestown Jammers, Kane County Cougars, Jupiter Hammerheads during his time in professional baseball.
Helps lives in Petrolia with his wife, Jamilee, and their three children. He coaches his boys baseball in Wyoming. He works as an Exercise Specialist for the North Lambton Community Healthcare Center in the cardiac rehabilitation program.

Steve McGrail is a Lambton County teacher with a passion for sports. His stories can be found on his Facebook Page Promoting Wyoming/Petrolia Area Athletes