“Thank you for coming into our lives and giving us hope. Thank you for loving us and receiving our love in return. Thank you for the old memories and the new ones we are about to create and will cherish forever. If it weren’t for you, this would still be a dream.”
Now, their dream is their reality. The U15 Brandon All-Stars softball team thanked the community and News Channel 8 for thousands of dollars in donations on the “Brandon Softball Traveling Expenses/Equipment” Facebook page.
They had put an $8,000 goal on the page nine days ago. They have nearly reached the goal, raising about $7,000.
The team’s head coach, Jimmy Rodriguez, tells News Channel 8 they raised an additional $1,500 too.
Rodriguez tells us the Brandon community is planning to send the team to the World Series in Louisiana on a high note on Wednesday night. The community would like to celebrate their success and wish them well.
The entire team will receive new batting helmets. A father, who has a child on a team in the younger age bracket, bought those helmets.
The league purchased new jerseys for the team and the Beef ‘O’ Brady’s in Seffner bought the players new softball pants and new softball socks.
When we interviewed Rodriguez at practice last week, he had tears in his eyes speaking about the goal to raise money to get to Louisiana. He said, “It is important to me because the girls do not get this opportunity every day. I want to make it happen. They deserve it.”
Genesis Martell, who is an outfielder on the team, told me us what softball means to her. “It is something that I really enjoy. If I am having a bad day, I like to come out here and throw balls, run, and do all of that. It is like my thing. It calms me down. It takes me away from everything that has happened so it is really good. It is not like a place where you have to put on makeup and all of that. You get to be you. You get to play hard and do your best.”
The coaches and the players reserved two 15 passenger vans to transport them to the tournament. They are packing their bags and hitting the road on Thursday.
