MOOSIC — Nearing the end of a long, cold, harsh winter, spring was in the air Sunday at PNC Field.
High school baseball and softball had the unofficial start to their seasons with the fourth annual Bill Howerton K Cancer Media Day. Lackawanna League teams gathered inside the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders clubhouse to talk with reporters about their upcoming campaigns, meet and mingle with opposing players and take part in a Home Run Derby in the indoor batting cages.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementThe event honors the former University of Scranton baseball coach and Battaglia’s Sporting Goods employee who died from cancer in August 2012. North Pocono baseball coach Brian Jardine and Keystone College coach Jamie Shevchik, who both started their careers under Howerton, created the Bill Howerton K Cancer organization two years later.
“It’s a great way to kick off the season and really happy with participation,” Jardine said. “It’s a great thing for the kids to be recognized for their talents and the teams to be recognized and promoted for the programs they put out there on the field. So just a great event all around.”
It has three main purposes: To celebrate Howerton’s life and what he did for baseball in the area; to promote local baseball and softball; and to raise awareness in the fight against cancer.
That last one hit close to home recently for the Scranton High School baseball team. A sophomore on the JV team, Kayden Davis, was diagnosed with brain cancer.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement“It’s just something that kind of came up,” Scranton coach Jamie Higgins said. “The kid’s healthy as a horse, but had some headaches. He went to the doctor, went for a CAT scan and has two tumors on his brain. It just happens like that. So when you put things in perspective, it opens your eyes. That’s why organizations like this exist. It’s good to be here, good for my kids to be here.
“He’s got a good prognosis, but he has a long road ahead of him. We’re doing everything we can to let him know that we’re behind him.”
Scranton’s Cayden Booth echoed his coach’s sentiment.
“It’s good to be here for the cause and to support him,” Booth said. “Hopefully, he gets through it and gets healthy.”
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementFormer Mid Valley standout baseball player Eddie Kaufman, last year’s recipient of the Howerton Exemplary Service Award, died in October from leukemia. So Sunday’s event was important to this year’s Spartans as well.
“This always is a great cause,” Brett Yanoski said. “We’re looking forward to playing this year for Eddie and just doing our best.”
This year’s recipient of the Exemplary Service Award is basketball coach Andrew Kettel, who brought Coaches vs. Cancer to the Lackawanna League and Northeast Pennsylvania. He formed the local chapter in January 2008 when, while coaching at Lackawanna Trail, the father of one of his players was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. They raised $1,200 and have been going ever since.
To date, the local chapter has raised more than $4 million.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementHis message to the athletes in attendance was to appreciate and not take for granted the support they receive from their communities. He said that is why Coaches vs. Cancer and Howerton K Cancer are successful.
“Some of the things we’ve been able to accomplish in Coaches vs. Cancer are not because of Andrew Kettel, but because of Northeast Pennsylvania and the people here,” Kettel said. “They get behind it and all the different school districts get behind it.”
Schools are asked to designate one home game as a Howerton K Cancer game. They can do anything for that game to raise funds for the organization such as T-shirt sales, basket raffles or simply passing a collection hat or bucket. Anything helps, Jardine said.
“When you combine the great sports of baseball and basketball against this terrible disease, we will be successful,” Kettel said. “Coach Phil Martelli, former coach at Saint Joseph’s University and the University of Michigan, who became a mentor of mine and dear friend, his line is, ‘Let’s just not beat this thing. Let’s crush it.’ If you continue to do what you do here and we continue to do what we do on the basketball floor, we’ll be able to some day put an end to this terrible disease and have a big party for it.”
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementLackawanna County also donated $1,000 in proceeds from its annual Field of Dreams games to the Howerton K Cancer organization.
Abbi Call of Valley View and Jake Bondy from Mid Valley were winners of the Home Run Derby on Sunday.
Defending champs
Last year’s champions in Lackawanna League baseball were Abington Heights in Division I, Mid Valley in Division II and Elk Lake in Division III. Softball champions were Abington Heights in Division I, Holy Cross in Division II and Elk Lake in Division III.
Four Lackawanna League softball teams won District 2 titles: Holy Cross in Class 1A, Mid Valley in Class 3A, Valley View in Class 4A and North Pocono in Class 5A. Two baseball teams — Dunmore in Class 3A and Mid Valley in Class 4A — won District 2 titles.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementValley View softball captured the PIAA Class 4A championship.
Games at PNC Field
High school baseball games once again will be held at PNC Field as part of the 10th annual RailRiders University Community Series.
Those games involving Lackawanna League teams include: Holy Cross vs. Riverside on March 31; Mid Valley vs. Western Wayne on April 4; Wallenpaupack vs. Abington Heights on April 13; Delaware Valley vs. North Pocono on April 14; Scranton vs. West Scranton on April 20; Stroudsburg vs. Abington Heights on May 2; and Northwest vs. Susquehanna on May 3.
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