Sports

Oak Creek Youth Baseball Team Has Sights on Cooperstown

A team of 12-year-olds from Oak Creek leaves for Cooperstown, N.Y. next week for a tournament featuring more than 100 teams from around the country.

As pilgrimages go, there's no greater journey a baseball fan can make than to Cooperstown, N.Y., site of the Baseball Hall of Fame.

And that's what a group of baseball-loving 12-year-olds from Oak Creek and their families are about to embark on to play in a tournament with more than 100 teams from around the country.

The Oak Creek Junior Knights team leaves next week for New York and will be there for seven days. They will play at least seven games at Cooperstown Dreams Park, a 150-acre site with 22 baseball fields, and participate in other competitions.

But beyond the baseball, it will be a tremendous experience for all involved, said Al Foeckler, one of the team's coaches. The teams stay in bunkhouses at the site, called Baseball Village, and get to interact with hundreds of other kids the same age.

"It's just going to be fun," he said. "It's really a great opportunity for the boys to spend time together."

Foeckler said a parent approached him last year with the idea, and after discussing it with families of the players, they agreed it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and should take advantage of it. Parents made a financial commitment and also rounded up sponsors to help support the trip.

The 12-player team figures to face some tough competition playing against squads from the likes of Georgia and Florida, where baseball is played all year.

The Junior Knights, for their part, practice year-round as well, using gyms when the weather turns cold. They play on different Oak Creek Little League teams during the week and join forces for tournaments on the weekends against other high-level teams.

"The kids are really committed to getting better," said Foeckler, who served as Oak Creek's mayor for four months following the death of Dick Bolender.

Besides baseball, there's another component of the trip that has the team equally excited.

Each team brings pins that represent their communities and exchange them with other players. Oak Creek decided to incoporate the Aug. 5 Sikh temple shooting on their pins so they could talk about what happened and the lessons learned, Foeckler said.

The pin has an orange ribbon for the temple, a blue ribbon for the Oak Creek Police Department, and the badge number of Lt. Brian Murphy, who was shot 15 times during the attack.

The kids will be able to explain what the pin means and how the community came together after the shooting, Foeckler said.

"We saw it as a means to do something positive," he said.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here