Local Sports

Challenger Division stars take on tee-ball standouts

On a sunny Saturday morning at Farm Colony a united effort between Little League, coaches, parents and players, the Warren County Challenger Division team, the Tarp Skunks, was able to finally put its weeks of practice to use as they faced off against an assortment of players from three tee-ball teams in a two-inning game.

According to the official Little League website, the Challenger Division was founded in 1989, and is Little League's adaptive baseball program for individuals with physical and intellectual challenges.

After several years of not having a team, Tarp Skunks head coach and also Warren County Commissioner Jeff Eggleston along with the help of Little League board member Scott Chase; and tee-ball coaches Chelsea Rickerson, John Papalia and Bill Bennett, worked together to bring Warren County a team and scrimmage once again.

Following a brief delay, like the rest of the nation, due to COVID-19, it was time to play ball in 2021.

"The parents love it, the kids love it," said Eggleston. "It's a really great opportunity for them to interact and socialize. We keep it really light, easy and simple, and everybody just plays at their own level and just gets better. It's really fun to just watch the kids get better and better every practice. This last practice this week was the best practice that we've had. The kids were great."

Eggleston was grateful that the mostly parent-driven team received a ton of support from the Warren County Little League for the scrimmage including providing equipment, sponsorships, pizza for afterward and of course the field.

"We would have a really hard time putting this together if we didn't have the help of the Little League," said Eggleston.

Little League board member Scott Chase, who heads up the girls Majors Division for Warren County, volunteered his time to work with Eggleston and the Challenger Division to ensure things went smoothly and the kids were able to have a fun baseball experience.

"I was all aboard with trying to get something going, and (Eggleston) brought this up about scrimmaging some tee-ball players and I said that's a great idea," Chase said. "It's all about having fun for the kids. Jeff's been practicing with these kids once a week and working with them. Just to get them to interact with other kids that are willing to come up here and play against them. It was great. … Just to see them all out there having fun and getting along, it was just enjoyable."

Eggleston made sure to elaborate that to these kids, it was not different than any other kids when it came to energy, competitive spirit and the love of the game.

"They take it hyper-serious," Eggleston said. "It's like the whole week of the game, it's like the whole Eye of the Tiger thing. It's all they talk about."

One of these players is Daniel Chamberlain, who's father Joash was able to not just see his son play, but also spend time on the field with him, and see his other son help his brother out.

"I really enjoy it," said Chamberlain. "Just watching the enjoyment he gets, all the kids get. Then it made my other son excited to come out here and help him out that was a real blessing to me. That was really cool to see my kid out there enjoying himself and running and having a good time with the rest of the kids. All season long they had a good time together and had a good rapport, and no one really had any problems, so it was awesome."

Eggleston explained that for the kids playing in the Challenger Division, it is no different than a typical situation where a player over the course of a season can go from not getting it to being one of the best kids on the team.

"I've coached other teams in a typical situation, the thing with this for me, it's just there's no pressure," said Eggleston who has a child on the team himself. "It's just a lot of fun to watch the kids. And they're so excited to be competing in a sport with everybody else. I get so excited for the kids, as a dad. Watching my kids get excited. When they're super serious and they're like, 'I'm gonna knock the ball out of the park,' it just really fill you up with a real great feeling.

"I think that's one of the great things about sports, when you engage with your children and they feel competitive. With some of the kids, they progress over the course of the season and there's a confidence they get in their own ability that you just can't duplicate in other situations," Eggleston added. "I think that's the other thing that's fantastic as a parent, is to see kids progress and just get better and then they feel more confident and they feel more capable. I think that's where this fits into that. It's one piece of the puzzle."

For the Tarp Skunks, this was their one game for the year, but Eggleston, Chase and many others feel that there can be much more to come building off of 2021's success.

"Everybody is pumped for next year because I think this year because of COVID it was just a really slow start to get everything up and running, and now that we kind of got it going, by the fall of next year we'll recruit more kids, we'll get more people involved in it, we'll do more promotion to get kids signed up," said Eggleston. "Hopefully we'll get to a point where we'll have two separate teams.