AI-assisted summaryChicago Cubs prospect Owen Caissie is the organization’s top-ranked prospect due to his impressive power.Caissie’s dedication to training and hard work from a young age has contributed to his success.The 22-year-old’s power has drawn attention and trade rumors, but he remains focused on his game.A 17-year-old Owen Caissie dug into the batter’s box for the Canadian Junior National team late in an exhibition game against the Toronto Blue Jays at TD Ballpark in Dunedin, Fla., on March 12, 2020, with a big opportunity. Caissie, who was hitless on the day, jumped on an early offering from veteran minor league pitcher Connor Overton and crushed it.
The success only made Caissie work harder. He spent most of his days training at the facility. After school, he’d ride his bike over and hit for a few hours. Caissie then got a break when his parents picked him up for dinner. Later in the evening, he returned for practice for several more hours with the Pirates.Even after those practices ended, Caissie stuck around, sometimes staying as late as midnight to get as many extra swings in as he could. He stayed so late that he sometimes locked the facility for the night. That became the norm throughout high school.”I didn’t party,” Caissie said. “I didn’t go to a single high school party. I was just in the cage all the time with a bunch of buddies and that’s all we did, really. I wouldn’t have it any other way.”Caissie’s relentless work ethic paid off. By the time he turned 16, he was popping on the radar of college coaches. The Burlington, Ontario, native traveled to the United States with his teammates from the Pirates to compete in Prep Baseball Report tournaments.During a dominating performance at one of the tournaments, Caissie earned a scholarship offer from Kentucky. Caissie committed, but it didn’t last. As he got older, his swing got better and his body got bigger. He grew into his frame, shot up several inches and added 25 pounds one season.The power hitter put his talents on display during the Tournament 12 showcase at Toronto’s Rogers Centre in 2019. Caissie won the event, hitting balls into the second deck of the Blue Jays’ stadium, Hamilton said.When Caissie reopened his recruitment, some of the top college programs from across the United States started reaching out to him. He eventually committed to Michigan, but Caissie’s stock continued to soar throughout high school. The peak may have come during the exhibition game against the Blue Jays.He was hitless early in the game. Then he belted the home run against Overton, a long-time minor-league pitcher who eventually went on to pitch in the big leagues. Hamilton believes Caissie showed the ability to not only hit pro pitching, but do it at a high level with a wood bat. He believes that it likely helped Caissie’s draft stock.Caissie agrees.”I think it really helped my career,” Caissie said. “Jumpstart it for sure.”The Padres selected Caissie in the second round of the MLB Draft three months later. But the hard work Caissie was putting in didn’t stop after making it to professional baseball.
Caissie gets traded and continues to deal with trade talkCaissie was back in Canada training at the Fieldhouse Pirates facility in December of 2020 when his phone rang. It was his agent letting him know he may be traded. Caissie took a few minutes to digest the information. Then he did what he usually does. He went back to work.”I just got drafted, so I didn’t really have any real connections to the Padres,” Caissie said. “I hadn’t really established a super deep connection with them. So, it was kind of crazy.”Caissie was part of a deal that sent Zach Davies, Reginald Preciado, Yeison Santana and Ismael Mena to the Cubs for star Yu Darvish and Victor Caratini. The Cubs quickly got a look at the power that Caissie had. During his first season of professional baseball, he hit .302 with 11 doubles and seven homers in 52 games across two levels.The following season, Caissie helped High-A South Bend to a championship. During one game, he smashed a home run that went out of the stadium and over a workout barn. The ball bounced past two buses in the parking lot and was brought back to the dugout, where it was given to Caissie’s dad.”He absolutely crushed it,” Jason Caissie said.That was just a sign of things to come for Caissie, who hit .289 with a .917 OPS and 22 homers for Double-A Tennessee in 2023. He made his Triple-A debut in 2024 and became one of the best hitters in the Cubs organization, hitting .278 with 29 doubles and 19 homers.The success earned Caissie an invite to play in the 2024 All-Star Futures Game, a contest that features some of the best prospects in Minor League Baseball. An injury kept Caissie from playing in it, but it didn’t slow him down. After the season, Caissie was placed on the 40-man roster by the Cubs.While Caissie possesses a strong arm, plays some good defense and can run the bases well, it’s his power that makes him so valuable. Cubs officials have said over the years that Caissie has boasted not only some of the best exit velocity numbers in baseball.”From a bat speed perspective and the way he squares a ball up, I mean, he’s 107, 108 consistently,” said Iowa manager Marty Pevey.Caissie has continued doing it. Despite battling injuries and a sickness recently, Caissie has put together another strong season in Triple-A. During his first 65 games with Iowa this season, Caissie tallied a .876 OPS with 18 doubles and 12 home runs.The recent run of success has moved Caissie into the top spot in the organization’s prospect rankings and he was recently invited back to the All-Star Futures Game. With how well he’s performed, Caissie has constantly been at the center of trade rumors the last two seasons.
Cissna Park volleyball coach Josh Landon guided the Timberwolves to a Class 1A state championship on Nov. 15, and he stopped by The News-Gazette in Champaign this past Sunday with three of his biggest supporters: from left, his 14-year-old daughter Kate, his wife Sarah and his 11-year-old daughter Annalise.
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Meet the 2025 All-Area Volleyball Coach of the Year: Cissna Park’s Josh Landon
Why he’s Coach of the Year
Cissna Park’s third consecutive time in the Class 1A state tournament was the charm, as the Timberwolves capped a 40-1 season with their first-ever state championship. Coach Josh Landon stopped by The News-Gazette with players Addison Lucht, Josie Neukomm and Sophie Duis to chat with staff writer Joey Wright about the program’s sustained success:
How do you put this season into words?
➜ Landon: It’s honestly still tough to put into words. The more we talk about it, now that we’ve had a month since being state champs, it’s kind of setting in what we were able to accomplish. And that’s the thing, it was the expectations coming in on paper. You have everything back and only replacing two seniors.
It was the challenge of making sure that everybody stayed focused on one goal, and that was trying to be their best every single day. But man, what a run that they were able to put together. Looking at the postseason and not losing a set, it’s just remarkable what they were able to accomplish.
And you didn’t call a timeout.
➜ Landon: I did not. I wasn’t keeping track of that, but some of the girls did let me know that.
How do you approach a season like this one, where you have all those expectations both from the outside and within?
➜ Landon: It was a challenge. I shared with our assistant coach, Nicole Trumble, and I shared with my wife, Sarah that this is going to be one of the harder years to coach just because of those expectations and things. But it was one of those for us as a staff, we started looking outside the box on different things. We looked for different drills to help motivate, different ways that we could challenge the team every day in practice, and setting small, little goals.
We were fortunate enough that Gabby Wessels was coming back to the area, and she was able to volunteer with us as an alum, bringing some of the mindfulness, so to speak, from her time being at Chattanooga, where she got her master’s. That was a different side of the game that we were able to present to the girls.
For the players, has it set in for you that you are state champions?
➜ Lucht: Having a month now to reflect on it, it really is beginning to set in how big of a thing it was that we just accomplished. Right after we were really happy. But then obviously we had to get right into basketball, but now that we’ve kind of had time to reflect on it, I think it just keeps getting cooler and cooler by the day just being able to think that we did that, and to be able to know that I ended my last game of my volleyball career with a win on the biggest stage as a state champ.
➜ Duis: It’s been really cool, definitely. It’s set in a little bit, but I think it’s still a little surreal for me. Just super exciting. We’re just so proud of each other and grateful we got to do it together. And I just think we wouldn’t have asked for anything else to end the season
➜ Neukomm: I’m going have to agree with Addie.
Like she said, we want to win on the biggest stage, but more importantly, with all the girls that we’ve been working through blood, sweat and tears on this season.
We’re leaving, but there’s still a big group of girls coming up after us that’s extremely talented. And I think it was amazing that we all were able to hone on one mission, and we were all able to get done together.
As an athletic director as well as being the coach, how do you balance everything that comes along with a busy season?
➜ Landon: I’m thankful for a 15-minute drive to and from work every day to get my mind right. But it’s the planning part of it, right? You wear different hats, but honestly, I think that’s what helps it maintain its course.
It allows you to become a little bit easier, so to speak. I’m not just focused on coaching volleyball in that particular moment. We’ve also got to make sure that we have things ready for the junior high basketball season, junior high baseball, where are the golfers going this particular day through my AD role. It doesn’t allow me to sit there and dwell on certain aspects. It allows me to stay fresh, so to speak.
What’s it like playing for Josh?
➜ Duis: It’s really nice that we’ve gotten to have him as a coach for so long and to have that relationship. I think we know them well, and I think likewise, they know us really well, and they know what we respond to and what helps us the most.
I think having that connection made it a lot easier just to connect with each other and to get us pushing farther.
➜ Neukomm: I don’t know if I can put it into words, but I mean, not only him, but our assistant coaches in Coach Trumble and Coach Wessels, they’ve all put their heart and soul into this team, and I think they expect nothing but the best from us.
Not only on the court, but off the court, they expect us to be in the classroom, trying our hardest and then coming after school every day with a focus and a fresh mind ready just to pound out new drills or whether it’s old stuff that we just need to focus on the little things to become better players.
➜ Lucht: It really helped us having that connection since we’ve been practicing since fourth grade, and they know how we play, and they know how we respond to things, so they know how to coach us and what gets us motivated.
I don’t think it even gets recognized how much they put into us as as girls and just as a team, because like you were saying, Coach Landon has lots of hats that he has to wear, being the athletic director, and also having two daughters, and just trying to balance all that during the busy time of the fall when there’s multiple sports going on.
So I think that could sometimes go unnoticed, but it’s really appreciated.
![Florida middle blocker Jaela Auguste (4) slams past Texas during an NCAA women’s volleyball game at Steven C. O'Connell Center Exactec arena in Gainesville, FL on Friday, November 7, 2025. [Alan Youngblood/Gainesville Sun]](https://www.jsonline.com/gcdn/authoring/authoring-images/2025/11/08/NTGS/87159497007-gai-fl-tn-volleyball-42806.jpg?width=660&height=466&fit=crop&format=pjpg&auto=webp)
