Rich Hans loves baseball and he especially loves giving back to the athletes who come out and work hard in his Wildwood Warrior program.
Entering his 10th year as head coach, Hans spends the entire year in some form of planning or organizing for the fund-raisers he and friends of Warrior baseball orchestrate to defray the cost of the every-other-year jaunt the team takes to Disney World for baseball and Florida fun.
April 9 to 14 are the dates for this year’s trip when Wildwood takes on a teams from New York and New Jersey, including Middle Township. They’ll play two of their four games at the Atlanta Braves training complex in Kissimmee.
“When you get in touch with the people at Disney they work to determine which teams you’d match up best with,” said Hans. “You usually fare well down there because the games are against teams of your size.”
Wildwood’s junior varsity will also play four games in the Sunshine State.
“We’ve raised about $20,000 for this trip,” said Hans. “It’s non-stop fund-raising for a year. “
Southwest Airlines will fly the group of 24 players, four coaches, a school administrator and a bat boy for less than $300 each, round trip. The trip total is $618 with hotel, Disney and water park passes, including a “Park Hopper” which allows the holder to visit any park any day.
Beginning with the end of the previous season, Hans asks each player for $25 every other week to be saved up for the trip. The more fund-raising that the team does, the more the total cost diminishes for each player. Parents, guardians and friends pay their own way.
“We’ll be able to give each kid about $200 in gift cards so it’ll only cost them $418 for six days at Disney,” said Hans, proudly. “And they get to play on major league fields when they’re down there.”
Eight years ago Hans started an annual fund-raising breakfast to help purchase bats and team sweat suits. Local businessman Bob Mulholland donated use of his restaurant while the players served as waiters and bus boys.
Two years ago Rick Jones donated use of his Cape May Par 3 Golf Course. The players serve as caddies and also help with the silent auction, which accompanies the outing. “We must have had about $3,500 in prizes with lots of restaurant gift certificates,” said Hans.
The team also printed about 200 advertising books to raise additional dollars.
Morey’s Piers is very generous in supporting the squad’s efforts, including allowing them to take 100 percent of the proceeds from a Morey’s parking lot during Firefighter’s Weekend in the Wildwoods. “Thanks to the Morey’s, we ended up with about $4,000 over the entire weekend,” said Hans.
LaPiazza Restaurant in Wildwood graciously hosted this winter’s spaghetti dinner fundraiser. The team sold whopping 500 tickets for the event. The baseball team also split a beef ‘n’ beer event at Keenan’s Irish Pub with the Warrior boys’ basketball squad as another means of raising money.
“We try to mix it up each time we do this,” said Hans. “We have some very generous businesses and we don’t want to keep asking them all of the time. Morey’s Piers and Sturdy Savings Bank are always there for us and we truly appreciate it.”
Sixty-two people are bound for Disney on April 9 to enjoy great weather, professional fields and family fun that some of the players and their families might otherwise never be able to afford.
“It’s a great experience,” said Hans. “It’s really unbelievable.”
The last fund-raiser for this year’s trip is a buffet breakfast, 7 a.m. to 2 p.m., Sun., April 1, at the Wildwood Crest Fire Hall, 7100 Pacific Ave. Cost is $10.
“One of the best things about the trip is that the team hangs out together for six days,” said Hans. “They bond and get to know each other better. Many of the players on this year’s team have been with the program since they were freshmen. They’ve really jelled because of this.”
Hans is assisted by Randy Sturm, Bill Fisher and Trip DeGroff. The Warriors open the 2012 season versus Wildwood Catholic on March 31.
“We’ve had between 18 and 30 players come out each year,” said Hans. “I’ll never forget my first year as head coach when we finished a game with only eight players. This year we have 25 kids on the team and we only have about 100 boys in the entire school.”
For more information about Warrior baseball visit www. wildwoodwarrriorsbaseball.net
Reach Rossi at joerossi61@comcast.net
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