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Thursday, Jul. 09, 2009

Volunteers help host Little League tournament

WARNER ROBINS – It was just after 10 Tuesday night. The lights above Field No. 4 at the Warner Robins American Little League complex were still glowing in the background, and a techno tune from the ’90s was blaring.

The park was emptying, and here came the league president riding a motorized work cart, about to tuck the park in for the evening.

“I’ll still be here, oh, another hour or so,” league president Ken Hathaway said as the curtain fell on opening night of the District 5 tournament.

A contingent of two dozen or so volunteers are helping host the six-team event that will send one squad of 11- and 12-year-old all-stars to the state tournament this month.

Hathaway said his league is using the opportunity to prepare to help Little League’s Southeast Region headquarters any way it can when the office opens down the street and hosts tournaments at a new stadium next summer.

“The thing that really gets me is that people are coming and volunteering and donating their time, and they don’t have a child in the program,” Hathaway said. “They come because they care about what goes on in the community.”

Take Brian Van Stee, a 22-year-old senior airman stationed at Robins Air Force Base. He was helping pump puddled rainwater from around second base an hour before Tuesday’s games.

“When I was stationed in Germany, I did a lot of volunteering as well,” Van Stee said. “I coached bowling and I go to schools and help out with reading with first-, second- and third-graders. ... I think it’s good for the community with the interaction between the Air Force and Warner Robins, Perry, Bonaire and the Byron area.”

Park regular Van Carroll, who has been lending a hand for everything from maintenance to charting pitches for more than a year, figures the pay isn’t bad either. Considering there isn’t any pay. “It pays great because I get to be around a lot of kids and see their expressions,” said Carroll, a retired railroad worker. “I like to see kids when they do something good. ... This is what I love. I just volunteer my services.”

The park also will host a Little League softball state tournament this summer.

Hathaway, the league president, said the recent district tournaments at the Warner Robins complex have afforded local volunteers a chance “to see what all is involved, what it takes to put on a tournament.”

Phillip Johnson, who heads the park’s groundskeeping crew, used to have another pastime. That was before he got involved in Little League.

“I used to play golf all the time – every day,” Johnson said. “But now I haven’t picked up a golf club in three years.”

He says there is plenty to keep him busy tending the grass and the infields. He calls his duties “a good hobby.”

“It’s community pride,” Johnson said. “We want our fields to look better than anybody else’s when they come in. ... You always wanted to play on a nice field when I was growing up. When you went somewhere and it had a real nice field, it was special, and so we try to make it like that, to make the kids feel like they’re playing for something special.”

To contact writer Joe Kovac Jr., call 744-4397.