By Miranda Simmons
On June 25, the 15U Eastern Utah Babe Ruth All-Star Team competed at and won the Southern Utah State Championship. The victory earned them a spot in the Pacific Southwest Regional All-stars tournament in Cerritos, California, which will be held July 24-30.
These boys have been practicing really hard for the last four weeks to prepare for this exciting opportunity. They want to make Carbon County proud. The squad is comprised of Trever Williams, Dominik Byrge, Tyce Larson, Kade Larson, Manuel Palacios, Marty Naranjo, Race Vasquez, Eleke Lang, Trevyn Manzanares, Brody Howell, McKade Zorn and Logan Madrigal. In addition, Randi Williams, Donnie Byrge and Kyle Larson are the coaches.
On top of practicing, they have been working nonstop to raise the funds necessary to make the trip to compete. These boys are beyond excited to be representing our community as well as all of the Southern Utah region. The team wanted to take the time to express its love and appreciation for the support from their friends, family and community to make this a possibility.
We wanted to thank the following businesses that were able to donate and help support our raffle: Little Learners Charities for the fly fishing trip from High Desert Fly Fishing; Marketing Elevated for the family stay vacation; Castleview Hospital for family Lagoon tickets; USU Eastern for the swag bag; Caption Call for the hiking kits; Jake Mellor for the gift basket; Janarie Cammans with Fire and Ice for a photo session; Gentry Coal Mine for one ton of coal; Renee Christman for her beautiful quilt; The S.F.W. for the Winchester Wildcat .22; Kara Maynes for her RingBomb basket; Yvette Smith for her Paparazzi gift basket; Andrea Hall for her Usana gift basket; Amanda Howell for the Scentsy gift basket; Charlotte Diamond for the Minky blanket; KWSA for Lagoon tickets; AJ’s Custom Paint and Body for the headlight restoration and the swag; Sutherlands for the patio table; plus all of the gift certificates from Uptown Steakhouse, Dave’s Auto Detailing, JB’s, Big Don’s Pizza, Price Oil Express and Banasky Insurance.
The monetary donations from Loveless Ash, Puzzle Pediatric, Southeast Fencing, Washington Federal, Tony Basso, ECDC, A Perfect Smile, Mine West, Zack Palacios, Scamp Excavation, Intermountain Electronics, Wheeler, Castleview Hospital, HardHat, Driggs Mortgage and Tram Electric are beyond appreciated as well.
We also want to thank KWSA and Peczuh Printing for advertising along with their raffle tickets. Andy Urbanik for helping with kettle corn. We were also able to do a food truck during Desert Thunder Raceway, and we want to thank them for letting us do that. In addition, we wanted to thank Hostess for the buns, Lin’s for the hotdogs, Smith’s for the chips and water, Pepsi for the drinks, Budweiser for the teas and Coke for the drinks, ice and most importantly the trailer for us to do all of this out of.
Another important aspect of competing is we are able to give each opposing player and coach something for them to remember our area by For this, we wanted to thank Nick Tatton with Price City for the pins, Tina Grange with Carbon County Tourism for their pins, USU Eastern for the team swag bags and Carbon School District for the apparel that they were able to donate.
Most importantly, though, the players wanted to express how much they appreciate their coaches for taking the time to encourage and teach them the importance of teamwork and unity. This team has grown stronger and more confident because of the time and effort their coaches have put forth for them. Once again, the players and their families wanted to express how thankful and appreciative we are of our friends, family and our community for coming together to be able to make this happen for us. Thank you for everything!