About Yolo
What We Do
The mission of Yolo Baseball is the development and promotion of girls baseball players and women baseball coaches. This is accomplished through travel teams, summer camps, and private & group instruction, along with advocacy and promotion of girls baseball achievements and programming.
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Our summer camps and travel team coaching and development model are designed based on educational pedagogy mixed in with the latest and best baseball coaching philosophy. Guided by our General Manager's background as a teacher, coach, and personal trainer, we plan and deliver programming that kids love while ensuring that they learn and develop personally.
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​​The Yolo program, players and coaches have been featured in several news stories about the development of girls baseball. Check out the latest press coverage.
Who We Are
Yolo is incorporated as a non-profit society in BC (see registration info here). Programs are run on a cost recovery basis to be as accessible as possible. We are hugely appreciative of our sponsors who help subsidize the costs of participation. Importantly, one of those costs is our coaches. While there are countless volunteer hours in the management and running of Yolo, all coaching is paid work. This is an important element in the growth and development of women coaches as part of creating a pathway that is fundamental to the girls & women's baseball ecosystem.
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Our travel team staff and our academy/camp staff are selected for their baseball experience and ability to work with and connect with kids. Senior staff have coached at community clubs & provincial high performance, while junior staff have played in PBL (BC high performance league), provincial teams and/or at the college level. ​
Our Founders
Kristy Watson
Co-Founder & General Manager
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Kristy brings a unique combination of skills and background to Yolo as a coach, personal trainer and teacher.
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Following a lifetime of coaching youth sports (soccer, baseball, rugby) that began in her late teens, she became an NCCP-certified baseball coach. Building on her education background, she then became an NCCP coach facilitator and evaluator, delivering NCCP courses to other coaches and certifying their performance in practices and games.
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She has coached baseball at the grassroots, travel team and provincial team levels. In 2025, she was named as an assistant coach with the Women's National Baseball team.
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Throughout her work with athletes of all ages, she delivers instruction from her knowledge of functional movement developed from 20 years of running her own personal training business.
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With her Bachelor of Education from UBC, Kristy has taught for 15 years across both high school and elementary ages. ​​​This foundation in education and understanding youth is the basis from which she builds travel team and academy coaching plans and camp curriculum.​​​
Juliette Kladko
Co-Founder & Director of Coaching
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Juliette began playing baseball at five years old with Dunbar Little League in Vancouver and went on to represent her league on All-Star teams before continuing with Vancouver Community Baseball.
She first made Team BC at age 10 and has since won four gold medals with the Aces as a player. She currently competes on British Columbia’s Women’s Team, represents Team Canada, and is a draftee in the new Women’s Pro Baseball League.
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Juliette began volunteer coaching with VCB, helping to build and strengthen the association’s all-girls baseball program. She is now Head Coach of Team BC 14U Aces, recently leading the team to a gold medal in 2025.
As the co-founder of Yolo Baseball, Juliette runs player development sessions in Vancouver and Victoria. She also offers private pitching lessons and serves as a lead instructor in Yolo’s all-girls summer baseball camps. She is 13U NCCP Certified and is committed to continually growing and learning as a coach.
Juliette is as passionate about coaching as she is about playing and is proud to be part of Yolo’s mission to grow the game for girls and women.
Vanessa McKinley
Co-Founder & Director of Player Development
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Vanessa McKinley started her baseball journey at the age of 11 with the Burnaby Baseball Association. She showcased her talent by playing for Team BC starting at age 12 and went on to win Western Canadians at 14U (2018) and a National Championship at 16U (2019).
She later joined the Concordia University baseball team as one of the few women to play university/collegiate baseball in Canada.
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Her commitment to the sport continued as she became an assistant coach for Team BC 14U where she helped lead the team to a silver medal at the 2023 Western Canadians.
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As Vanessa saw the need arise for more girls development in baseball, she joined with Kristy and Juliette in helping to co-found Yolo Baseball. Within Yolo, she has led summer camps and coaching travel teams since its inception, sharing her passion and expertise with young athletes.
