Pirates Give Back
April 17, 2006 | Baseball
April 17, 2006
Contributed by Nick Zulovich
The Daily Reflector
Sunday, April 16, 2006
Uniforms and caps that ranged in every color from a box of crayons dotted the turf at Clark-LeClair Stadium on Saturday morning. There were the purple and gold uniforms of East Carolina's baseball players and coaches along with more than 150 youth baseball players who turned out for a 90-minute free session that was just as much about instruction as it was about enjoyment.
"This was about the love of the game," ECU head coach Billy Godwin said. "It was just a great morning. I love this."
ECU's players and coaches worked with the youngsters on all of the basics of the game, ranging from how a pitcher should throw a baseball, how a fielder should position his feet to gather in a ball, how a baserunner should touch the bag and be ready to advance and how a hitter needs to hold the bat correctly in a bunt situation. It was difficult to determine whose smile was wider, the youth players, the adults who loaded up SUVs and minivans to bring them, or the members of ECU's baseball program.
"To me, as people who have been fortunate in this game, we owe a lot of people," Godwin said. "This would not have been successful if nobody showed up. I've been very blessed in this game that I feel like I have to give back something to keep the fire burning in guys who want to play baseball. I was as excited as the kids were."
Ashley Padgett of Washington came with her husband Chris, who filled the family camera with pictures of their children, Reed, 10, and Josh, 7. Ashley Padgett said she told her sons of the event on Thursday night and the wait for them seemed to be unbearable. She added how ECU outfielder Brandon Henderson immediately helped her older son with his skills.
"They've already fixed something with my son, so I'm just tickled," Padgett said. "It took an ECU player to get him straight."
Patrick Searcy of Bethel, along with being the father of a ballplayer, also coaches youngsters with the Southern Pitt All-Stars. Searcy said he and his son, Davis, 8, regularly attend ECU games and the opportunity to learn and speak with players first hand was a chance not to be missed.
"It validates what we say," Searcy said. "The coaches and the players are all doing it."
Though ECU junior pitcher Mike Flye said otherwise, it wasn't a terribly long time ago that he was a youth player in Greenville Little Leages. Flye said there wasn't events like this when he was a player for the Lion's Club. However, he smiled looking over the field that was covered with players of various ages and ethnicities.
"There's a lot of tradition here," Flye said. "It's good to see these young kids coming out and keeping it going."
That tradition is being kept up not only in sheer volume but in quality of play, as well. Godwin threw several sessions of batting practice for some of the players.
Rashawn Lockamy, 10, was just one of the numerous players to draw praise from not only Godwin but other ECU athletes. Lockamy laced several of Godwin's offerings for long drives that could have gone for home runs on a Little League field.
"I was a little nervous," Lockamy said. "When I started hitting them into the outfield I wasn't nervous anymore."
The event concluded with Godwin giving some brief points of advice to the youngsters, including to thank the people who brought them to Clark-LeClair, also to concentrate on school work, too, as well as a method to use to make good decisions.
"Ask yourself if the person who loves you most would approve of you doing that," Godwin told the group. "It's something I tell my players all the time because it always works."
ECU's athletic department is hoping this type of event becomes a regular part of the Pirates' season. Along with Saturday morning's clinic, youth ballplayers in uniform had the opportunity to run out of the field with their favorite ECU player prior to Saturday evening's game against the University of Albany.
"It's great to give back because when we were kids, guys came back to help us, too," Flye said.
