Photos: Challenger Division Opening Day

On Sunday March 10, I had the wonderful pleasure of attending the East County Little League Challenger Division Opening Day for special needs children. The league has grown from a two-team division to four teams (A’s, Angels, Giants and Mariners) and is a community asset.

Teams are set up according to abilities, rather than age, and can include as many as 15-20 players. Challenger games can be played as tee ball games, coach pitch, player pitch, or a combination of the three.

The beauty of this league is it involves not only special needs children, but the games are played with the assistants of “buddies” which are a mixture of parents, family members, friends and other youths.  It really is a community league where everyone is a winner and you feel good after the game is complete.

If you want to see some magic happen, I encourage you to get out there and watch a game or get involved with the division, it really will be life changing!

Here are photos of Opening Day, click to enlarge.

How it works:
In a Challenger game, each player gets a chance to bat. The side is retired when the offense has batted through the roster, or when a pre-determined number of runs have been scored, or when three outs are recorded. Little League recommends that no score be kept during Challenger games. The Challenger players wear the same uniforms, shoulder patches and safety equipment as other Little League players. Today, more than 30,000 children participate in more than 900 Challenger Divisions worldwide.

For more information about East County Little League and the Challenger Division, please check out their website at http://eastcountyll.org/