Home Non-Profit Liberty High Football “Buddies” with Special Needs Baseball Teams

Liberty High Football “Buddies” with Special Needs Baseball Teams

by ECT

Challenger Baseball Division and the Liberty High School Football team partnered this past Sunday  to create an experience of a life time for the Challenger Division of East County Little League. The “buddy program” was launched this year and has a variety of local sports teams  participate.this season.

Players from the football team were partnered with each player from the Giants and Mariners. The special needs kids then got to teach football players about baseball–those players not selected as buddies then became cheerleaders and cheered on the kids from the fence.

“Our challenger players have loved having buddies and thrive interacting with baseball players and other athletes of all ages. It is very exciting for all involved and has increased acceptance of special needs children by those without disabilities in our community. Their friendship base has broadened and their world has expanded,”said Meghan Bell, Challenger Coordinator for East County Little League.

Liberty High football coach Jeff Walters believes Sundays event will be the beginning of a beautiful partnership between both organizations. They are already discussing a “Challenger Night” during football season as a way to honor the players.

“It’s a huge thank you to the Challenger kids and an opportunity for us to give back to the community and learn about the value of competition and playing for the love of the game,” said Walters. “It absolutely changed the perspective of some of my players. Those challenger kids are not worried about the stats or the score, just playing for the love of the game.”

According to Walters, after the game Sunday, he and his players have already had talks about perspective in sports based off watching the kids play. In fact, some of the kids have already asked if they can volunteer on their own time.

Sunday June 9, the Challenger Division will kick off the East County Little Leagues closing ceremonies by playing their last game.   The Senior Softball ladies and Jr. Division Tigers  will participate and  play a one-inning game and go into trophy ceremony. The rest of the League will do TOC winnings and All-Star team announcements at that time.

Here are some photographs from Sunday’s event.

The following photographs were taken from a May 5 event where the Die Hard Fast pitch Softball team came out.  They held baseball drills, BBQ,  buddied the Challenger game while presenting T-shirts and medals commemorating the day. The photographs were provided by Meghan Bell.

“When the Die Hard ladies softball travel team and kids from Liberty football team come out, they are nothing short of heroes,” added Bell.

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2 comments

Sara May 21, 2013 - 9:26 am

East County Little League really is an amazing group of people for highlighting the special needs division and working to gain more acceptance at all levels. The buddy system was a great idea and thank you for again covering these wonderful events in our community that we cannot find elsewhere except on this site.

jennifer May 21, 2013 - 12:37 pm

Way to go Die Hards

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