In addition to competing in their spring season, WJ baseball has made an effort to provide children with disabilities the opportunity to play baseball through Miracle League.
The Miracle League of Montgomery County, Maryland is a non-profit organization that strives to include children, regardless of their abilities, to facilitate a fun and welcoming environment where kids are able to play baseball as a team member in a league.
The team’s head coach, Steve Sutherland, works as a special education teacher at Winston Churchill High School, so he is incredibly involved in working with students who have intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). Additionally, Sutherland is also the bocce coach for the Bulldogs.
“I’ve been a special education teacher for the last 19 years, so along with that, I’ve coached bocce and [worked] with Special Olympics. Working with the special needs population has always been something near and dear to my heart. Any time you can tie that in with your baseball team, it’s a win-win,” Sutherland said.
The team became involved with Miracle League after Sutherland set the Cats up with the program in the fall, and since it was so successful, they decided to volunteer again this spring.
At these programs, the Cats hangout and get paired with buddies who get the chance to bat and to score runs.
“We just hang out with the kids and usually it’s one-on-one or two-on-one and the kids all just hit, play a mini game, round the bases, score and throw the ball. We just all make sure they have fun,” junior Brady Chan said.
The Cats believe that this experience makes a difference and influences them positively.
“I think I’ve gotten a sense of what it means to be fortunate about what I am able to do and how I can help less fortunate kids do what we love,” Chan said.
Moreover, it lets the Cats have the opportunity to teach kids with IDD and they are able to foster an atmosphere where they can play and just have fun.
“It was definitely fun to teach the kids and it makes you very grateful for the ability that you have to play on your own and it’s great to be able to take something that you live and give back to the community in that way,” senior Vance Bonior said.
Players were fully engaged and committed to making sure each buddy received meaningful experience.
“I brought my wife to the Miracle League that day and the one thing she left saying was … ‘It was amazing to see that every one of the baseball players were fully committed to working with the players that they were assigned to. There was not one player on his cell phone or in the outfield talking to another player on our team. Every single player was completely all-in on it and you could just see the smiles on both faces,’” Sutherland said.
While the team does not yet have a set date that they will volunteer in the future, they are looking forward to returning and plan to volunteer again next year.
“They’re all booked right now, but we are definitely going to do it at least two or three times probably in the fall and then next spring, we’ll pick right back up and do it again,” Sutherland said.
