Summer is the time of year when baseball fans of all ages take to the fields and diamonds to take part in the quintessentially American sport.
The children, as young as 6 and as old as 13, who showed up at Washington Heights Park on June 15 to take part in the Rockies Skills Challenge had just as much love for the game as the majors who were playing in Detroit that same night.
“The challenge is an exciting competition for kids, and they really enjoy coming out,” said Stacie Bandy, youth sports field supervisor for Lakewood.
The competition is an annual one, held all over the state and run by the Colorado Parks and Recreation Association. About 30 children turned up, but they didn’t actually play a game of baseball. Instead, they took part in three skill challenges: running, batting and throwing.
The batting challenge involved the children taking three swings at a ball on a tee, with the best hit being measured and marked. The running part of the competition was a timed run around the bases, and the throwing portion measured how far the players could throw a baseball.
Jayna Lang, Lakewood’s youth sports coordinator, said many of the participants are already playing baseball somewhere in the area, but they still want to take part in this competition.
Brady Dalton, 8, plays in a league during the summer and said he’d spent the past two months practicing. Of the three events, he said, hitting was his favorite.
When the participants arrived, they were split into three groups based on age: 6 to 7, 8 to 9, and 10 to 13, and then they ran through the separate skills, with the top performer from each age group going on to a sectional competition.
Sectionals will be held in six regions: Edgewater (in which the winners from Lakewood will compete), Englewood, Grand Junction, Longmont, Pueblo and Aspen. The winners from these competitions will go on to the state championship held at the Coca-Cola All Star Park at Keli McGregor Field.
Lance Woodman, whose son Landon was taking part in the challenge, said he heard about the event and since baseball is Landon’s favorite sport to play, thought his son would like to try.
“The event gets kids active and gets the community involved,” Lang said. “Hopefully, it will also inspire them to stay active throughout their lives.”
In addition to the opportunity to move forward in the competition, she said, the event is free, so more children can participate and test their skills.
“It’s a fun activity with a very warm environment,” Bandy said. “It’s a relaxed competition, which helps them out a lot.”