Mahomet junior high boys get chance to continue playing baseball on Mahomet Stingers

BY DANI TIETZ
dani@mahometnews.com

Rantoul, Ill. – “If you build it, they will come.”

The line that led Ray Kinsella, a farmer in rural Iowa, to build a baseball field has also been inspirational in the development of the Mahomet Stingers youth baseball team.

Mahomet is full of possibilities for boys to play competitively and recreationally from the time they are 4-years-old.

Some players choose to try out for the Mahomet Diamond Dogs or the Mahomet Mavericks traveling teams. Other players choose to compete against their peers from Mahomet through the Mahomet Parks and Recreation Department’s (MPRD) offering.

But opportunities to play with MPRD end once the child leaves sixth grade.

Prior to 2019, seventh- and eighth-grade players only had two options: to play for the Diamond Dogs or the Mavericks until they had the opportunity to try out for the Mahomet-Seymour High School baseball team.

According to Mahomet resident Sarah Bensken, the boys who played with MPRD until sixth grade usually lacked the confidence or even the skills to try out for the travel teams.

Bensken came out of the summer of 2018 thinking about ways to create an opportunity for boys from seventh grade to freshmen year to continue to play baseball without having to make a huge time and financial commitment.

“For me, if they want to play, they should be allowed to play,” Bensken said.

With support from families with boys in middle school, Bensken reached out to the Rantoul Recreation Department to see if a Mahomet team would be able to play in its league, which includes other junior high-aged baseball teams from the East Central Illinois area.

Upon approval was gained, the Mahomet Stingers were formed.

With financial support from Awards Unlimited and informational and logistical help from the Mahomet Parks and Recreation Department, 14 Mahomet boys, under the guidance of Bensken and Mahomet residents Kris Rath and Thane Hanson have been able to continue their baseball careers this summer.

Bensken said MPRD helped the team secure a practice field in Mahomet.

“They are the most amazing people in the world,” Bensken said.

Awards Unlimited’s donation has helped keep the cost low for players.

“I went to my bosses and said, ‘Look. These boys want to play ball. Can you help?’ He said, ‘Of course.’

“Working at (Awards Unlimited) has really opened my eyes to how important it is to stay small and local,” Bensken said.

Additional donations from families and friends, including a large donation in memory of Charles Baldwin, Bensken’s partners’ father and a former Mahomet-Seymour and Parkland College instructor and administrator, has helped the team get uniforms and hats. Bensken’s family members helped donate balls and equipment.

“The kids were ecstatic,” Bensken said.

When game time rolled around, the boys were a little shocked.

Mahomet programming is filtered by grade whereas Rantoul’s program is structured by age. Mahomet boys who are just turning 12, 13 and 14 were going up against established players who can be up to 15-years-old if they registered for the program when they were 14.

“We were mismatched,” Bensken said. “And that was really hard for some of the boys in the first few games.”

Mahomet-Seymour freshman Cainan Birge joined the team late to help make up for some of that age difference.

A versatile player, Birge has helped with pitching, playing second base, shortstop and outfield.

“It’s just fun working with all these guys,” Birge said. “I didn’t really know them before, but I’m pretty good friends with some of them now.”

But the Mahomet Stingers team was not built with the vision of winning every game, but rather learning about the game along the way.

“One of the things that I first tell the boys, the first day that I see them is that there is one thing I want them to get out of this league: I want them to learn something about the sport that they didn’t previously know,” Bensken said.

From getting shutout at the beginning of the season to leading consecutive innings and standing toe-to-toe with teams at the end of the season, the Stingers have improved.

“I have seen big growth in these guys,” Bensken said. “It’s just so amazing to go from them thinking, ‘We’re never going to do this. Look how big that kid is on this team. He’s in high school, he’s so much bigger than us,’ to holding them (with the score tied) and just really fighting back. Like, I’m just so unbelievably proud of them.”

Building on the backbone of fundamentals, Stinger coaches give players the opportunity to grow with repetition.

“By doing that, you’re seeing kids that couldn’t make a throw from third to first that now can,” Bensken said.

Incoming eighth-grader Isaac Hanson, who has been playing baseball since fifth grade, said the coaches have really challenged him to improve his throwing arm.

At the end of the season, Hanson was able to make the throw from behind the plate to second base in time to tag out runners attempting to steal.

Incoming eighth-grader Levi Isaac said that he wanted to improve on hitting and fielding, and he feels he made major advancements in both areas.

“The coaches are great,” he said. “They give us good tips and they help us improve.”

“They are given the opportunity that they wouldn’t be given because there was the lack of a league for this age group,” Bensken said. “And that they wouldn’t be given because they couldn’t make the (travel teams). Now they have that opportunity to build skills. And that’s what’s important.”

Bensken said that her vision of creating a space for everyone to participate to creating a team atmosphere, came to fruition during the team’s inaugural year.

Parents went from dropping their child off at practice to joining the team on the field to share their baseball expertise.

The team’s dugout also went from silence to rowdy cheers in the few months the team competed.

“It was touch and go at the beginning because a lot of these boys they came from different cliques at school,” Bensken said. “But they’ve gotten to know each other.

“They’re bonding and in a fantastic way. You know, it doesn’t matter what walk of life one kid comes from. They’re all together. They’re all a team. They’re all united. And that’s something that I see them grow into every single day.”

Isaac Hanson said that he’s found a love for baseball because everyone gets to participate.

“In other sports, other players may not get a chance to have their own time to play,” he said. “But in baseball, everyone gets up to bat and everyone gets their turn.”

The 2019 Mahomet Stingers built something they are looking forward to coming back to in the upcoming years.

Because the league runs from 12 to 14 years old, some of the younger players will be able to participate in consecutive summers.

“It’s like (they) are paving the way,” Bensken said.