Little League challenger division players have big day at Copper Sky

Copper Sky Recreation Complex baseball fields were packed Saturday as the first-ever Arizona State Challenger Division Baseball Jamboree paired players with physical or developmental disabilities with mentors to assist them as they hit, pitched, fielded and ran the bases.

The day’s festivities included a parade, opening ceremonies and, of course plenty of games with teams from Maricopa, Mesa, Tucson and Casa Grande.

In his opening ceremonies speech, former NFL offensive lineman for the Detroit Lions Juan Roque said, “The biggest thing I took away from my time in sports was learning to work as a team; we need to do what our team needs us to do. If you always go out and try your best, you’ll make your team better every time.”

Roque, whose 12-year-old son Cristian was diagnosed with autism in 2007, said it is important for the kids to come out and be a part of a team.

He commended the players’ parents: “It says a lot about the character of the parents who raise a special child and it says a lot about the child they raise.”

Parents like Nicole Hastings of Queen Creek whose son Kyler, 6, was diagnosed with cerebral palsy soon after he was born.

“It has been an amazing experience for him to be a part of something. He loves it; every day he asks if it’s baseball today,” Hastings said. “He can live like any other kid.”

With his ball and glove, Kyler was running around the field, playing catch with his paired mentor.

“I like to play baseball, I get to hit the ball,” Kyler said. “Two times I scored today.”

Kyler’s baseball mentor Tyler Williams, 15, from Desert Ridge High School found out about the challenger’s division mentoring program through a high school teammate’s mom.

“It was loads of fun,” he said of Saturday’s event.

In Maricopa’s challenger league, players are divided between two teams –
the Grasshoppers and the Hot Rods – that play a six-game season with one game a week on Saturday mornings.

“Our challengers are at the end of their season. This is kind of their finale,” Heather Diamond, Maricopa Little League president, said.

“We treat the players based off their ability. If they can hit a ball that is thrown to them, then we will throw a ball to them. If they need a tee, then they get a tee,” Diamond said.

Mayor Christian Price, who joined in the parade and also threw the first pitch, said he would like to see Saturday’s event played annually.

“We’re still so new to this and having this new facility, but it’s something we have definitely been looking into. Whether it is pee wee football, baseball, basketball or soccer, we’d love to have it here,” Price said of the recently opened Copper Sky. “We would love to keep the Arizona State Challengers Jamboree here in Maricopa, too, and make it a yearly tradition.”

***ADVERTISEMENT***In its 25 years, the challenger division has grown from a few teams, to now include more than 30,000 participants, with 950 programs, represented in 10 different countries.

“Challenger division started through a few dedicated parents who wanted their children to play. So we tested a few pilot programs and it became this,” said Sam Ranck, Little League’s director of the challenger division.