FirstEnergy Park in Lakewood hosted special softball games on Tuesday night that featured players from the Challenger League of Monmouth and Ocean Counties Watch video
LAKEWOOD - Dozens of young athletes took the field at FirstEnergy Park on Tuesday night.
With the Lakewood BlueClaws playing an away game against the West Virginia Power, the ballplayers weren't members of any minor league teams but were rather players from the Challenger League of Monmouth and Ocean Counties.
The league, which is sponsored by the Brick Township-based nonprofit organization Parents of Autistic Children (POAC), provides athletic opportunities for special needs students from school districts spanning from the Aberdeen-Matawan School District in northern Monmouth County to the Pinelands Regional School District in southern Ocean County.
Tuesday's night's visit has become an annual tradition for the Challenger League athletes, courtesy of the New Jersey State Elks Association.
"Each year we take a group of special needs challenger athletes and we treat them first to a regular BlueClaws game... and then we have a night where we have use of the field for the kids to play their own game," Teri Bayton, the chairwoman of the N.J. Elks Association's southwest district's special children's committee.
Richard Bard, the president-elect of the New Jersey State Elks Association, said the Elks fund the outings at FirstEngery Park - in cooperation with the Lakewood BlueClaws - through donations raised on the local level by the association's individual lodges.
"The best part of it, without a doubt, is seeing the smiles on the children's faces when they come off the field," Bard said. "We were lucky enough to be here with them a week ago Sunday... when we took them to the baseball game. But I believe they're actually having more fun today, being able to run around on the field, than they did that day."
The Challenger League was started in 2008 by Joe DiPietro, a Pinelands Regional High School graduate who is currently the assistant principal at Southern Regional High School.
It offers year-round socialization opportunities through competitive athletic participation between disabled students and their peers. And unlike any other similar leagues in the state, the Challenger League gives its athletes the unique opportunity to compete for their respective schools, just like general population students.
The students typically play games every Sunday - softball in the spring, soccer and flag football in the fall, and basketball in the winter - with an average of about seven students per team.
Of the three games scheduled to be played at FirstEnergy Park on Tuesday night, the finale was a "Senior Game" featuring athletes who are aging out of the Challenger League program, which is for seventh graders through age 21.
Pinelands Regional special education teacher and coach Scott Beaton said he has spent basically every Sunday during the school year for the last eight years with Pinelands Regional's representative in the game - Jacob Parker, 21, of Little Egg Harbor Township.
"That's a bond that we wouldn't have if it weren't for Challenger," Beaton said. "He's bonded with other kids who have been 'buddies' (general population students) and he's bonded with other kids who have also been teammates with him. That bond, that friendship that you form by being on a team - riding on the bus every Sunday to an away game, standing out in the cold on a football field - that's all facilitated through this league."
Beaton said that Tuesday night's event would likely be a memory the athletes carry with them for the rest of their lives.
"Some kids will never get to experience this or play varsity, so for our guys to experience this and get to say that they played under the lights of a minor league stadium like this... it's just a huge experience for them that they'll probably never forget," he said.
Rob Spahr may be reached at rspahr@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TheRobSpahr. Find NJ.com on Facebook.