Louisville’s run to Men’s College World Series in part due to Black baseball pipeline — Andscape
OMAHA, Neb. — Not all double plays are turned equally. When the Louisville Cardinals’ battery adroitly pulled off a successful 1-2-3 double play in the top of the sixth inning at Jim Patterson Stadium last week, complete with a fantastic stretch at first base to snuff out a bases-loaded situation and end the frame while […]
OMAHA, Neb. — Not all double plays are turned equally.
When the Louisville Cardinals’ battery adroitly pulled off a successful 1-2-3 double play in the top of the sixth inning at Jim Patterson Stadium last week, complete with a fantastic stretch at first base to snuff out a bases-loaded situation and end the frame while keeping the score tied — whew — you felt it.
From there, they could smell Omaha and the Men’s College World Series.
If things like team yearbook reels were still a thing, there’s an argument that play could open the entire table of contents. It was bang, bang – it mattered and the crowd went nuts. Even the first umpire delivered a punchie for the ages. That’s the kind of special moment you almost have to have on a team to believe you’ve got a chance to win the whole thing.
But the man who put the Cards ahead, on a useful looper over the shortstop’s head that got just under the center fielder’s glove, was none other than Eddie King Jr. — a name that you might not know you remember.
“It was the first time I ever really signed autographs. And, you know, people kept coming up to me asking for pictures. I felt like a celebrity,” King said this week, describing his first brush with the spotlight in baseball, long before he became a household name in Atlantic Coast Conference baseball circles. “That was a really cool experience. Not too many people will ever get to do something like that. Then we met the president, too. So, yeah, that was also really cool for us.”
What many people look back on as an awful injustice that highlighted the fundamentally unfair nature of youth sports as it relates to participation, sportsmanship and the American Way, the senior sports administration major reflects on his younger diamond days with reverence.
King was the youngest player on the Jackie Robinson West team that was stripped of all its accomplishments as U.S. Champions at the 2014 Little League World Series after a rival coach started investigating the boundary limits of the league and its players, who were ultimately found to be ineligible. It was one of those cruel reminders that not only will some people do everything to make sure that some kids don’t succeed, but also that matters as trite as what addresses we hold can determine success.
King still wears No. 42 to this day. He was named Super Regional MVP, going 6-for-10 with two home runs, four RBIs, two doubles and a walk, while playing two outfield positions and designated hitter. The trophies haven’t taken the memories from him.
“We shared the dorm with the Australians [in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, home of the Little League World Series]. That was fun, just being around them and seeing how they are,” King said. “That was also a really fun time. So now it’s like, I have a bunch of brothers that I know now from that [Jackie Robinson West] team.”
At the collegiate level, it’s easy to look at most talent as existing in the binary of either “raw” or “pro-ready,” but many around the program have seen firsthand how King has gone from the former to the latter right before their eyes.
Louisville Cardinals outfielder Eddie King Jr. (right) against the Clemson Tigers on April 19 at Doug Kingsmore Stadium in Clemson, S.C.
John Byrum/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
“He is the most humble and at-ease superstar. He will sign your autographs. He’ll smile occasionally. He’s never too high, he’s never too low. But he’s also a guy at the plate that I think is our most astute hitter,” Sean Moth, play-by-play voice of the Cardinals for more than two decades, said Thursday at their workout day.
“He will see a change-up, maybe have a bad swing and miss, and it may not be that at-bat that he’ll turn it around and put it down the left-field line for a base hit. But later in the game, if he faces that same pitcher, he files it away. And he’s got a very cerebral approach to the game.”
There was a time when King’s future at Louisville was genuinely uncertain. Time, injury and circumstance nearly cost him his chance, but after a freshman year in which he literally did not play, he’s going from the Little League World Series to the College World Series with 6,000 people in the home crowd chanting his name all along the way.
“I sat him down in my office, just being real. Like, I don’t want to pat kids on the back and act like everything’s gonna be OK,” Louisville head coach Dan McDonnell said of that encounter with King years back. “I said, ‘Eddie, I honestly don’t know if you can play here, like I didn’t get to see anything your freshman year. I’m losing two senior outfielders. I need a centerfielder, and we projected you as a centerfielder. But man, [you’re] a guy that hasn’t played all year.’
“So I said, ‘Here’s what we need to do. You need to go out this summer and you need to show us. If you go out this summer, and you can’t play, how can you come back to Louisville, right?’ And what I love about it was, he didn’t act like a baby, no entitlement. It was like right out of the chute, ‘I gotta earn it.’ And I give Eddie a lot of credit, because he went out, he was the MVP of the Prospect League.”
While King is a standout talent, he didn’t just come out of nowhere. It wasn’t happenstance that a Chicago kid ended up at Louisville. Coach Mac, as he’s known, has had a pipeline from Chicago for more than a decade. Coincidentally, it all started for the most part right there with a family member of Eddie’s: his older cousin, former Louisville outfielder Corey Ray.
“I didn’t know that I was related to Eddie until he committed to Louisville. My grandmother, who knows everyone, told me. She says, ‘Hey, you have a cousin that just committed to play baseball at Louisville,’ ” Ray said, with the quizzical tone you get when a relative drops some lore on you that you could have never imagined. “So naturally, he became one of my favorites.”
Ray, who was drafted twice in his amateur career, was one of the first players who made folks sit up and notice what was happening with this link between Chicago and Louisville. He started 19 games as a freshman and every game as a sophomore. That first year, the Cardinals went to Omaha. An incredible blur on the field, Ray was a must-see player in college baseball.
“We had had this pipeline going in Chicago, but Corey was a big name. And I think he knew what type of program we were, very aggressive on the bases, very aggressive, offensively fun. Fun type of system to be in,” McDonnell said. “I tell this story a lot to kids in our program. I said, ‘Players, what you got to understand is we’re not changing for you. You have to change and make the adjustment, and not for us, per se, but for the game of baseball. We’ve been doing this a long time, so you got to be able to adapt.’ Corey was one of those. He just didn’t look like he was making the adjustment, not being stubborn, but just mechanically. He was so athletic and so talented.
“He was low maintenance. Wasn’t any drama. Punched the clock every day. His first start, [we] were, like, 40 games in, and I finally said, ‘I gotta give Corey Ray a chance here,’ ” McDonnell said. “And he gets two hits. Oh, another chance. Gets two hits, and Corey starts, I think, like every game. I think we lose in the conference tournament finals, and then we host a regional. We win a regional. We host a super regional; we win a super regional.
“Now he’s a starting freshman, hitting in the six hole, but just very quietly didn’t exaggerate his struggles, didn’t make a big deal about it. Just started to make the adjustments little by little, and one day, man, it clicked, and he didn’t come out of the lineup for two and a half years.”
Why does that matter? Because now, it seems like at least one organization understood that Ray’s understanding of the game is just as important as his ability to round the bags. He only play one career game in the big leagues (in 2021 for Milwaukee), and in that game he did score a run.
The year after his pro ball dreams ended, the Chicago Cubs hired him as their Single-A bench coach with the Myrtle Beach Pelicans. Now, he’s a coordinator and field manager with the franchise and does quite a bit on the player development side.
Trust me, it is not easy to find your way into the coaching ranks in baseball even if you had a robust pro career, so for a guy who’s still relatively young (30), Ray is well on his way to being a skipper somewhere. Reminder: If you think the number of Black players on the field is small, try looking into a dugout when the team is on the field. You’ll find even less of us as coaches and managers.
At the risk of getting into a lengthy sidebar about how diversity in the game is as much of a trickle-up process as anything, seeing a college program that regularly attracts Black talent as a Power 4 school is refreshing. To know that it’s coming from an actual place of connectivity and not just availability makes it feel more genuine. To think that one of its more well-known alums is breaking the plaster coaching ceiling, albeit one step at a time, feels like real progress.
Louisville Cardinals outfielder Corey Ray takes a swing in June 2014 at the College World Series in a game against the Vanderbilt Commodores at TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha, Nebraska.
Dennis Hubbard/Icon SMI/Corbis/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
McDonnell vividly remembers the moment he realized Ray would make a good educator of the game and leader of men. When Ray would return for offseason workouts at Louisville during his pro career, the college guys would listen to him when he gave them pointers.
“It gets to the point where you’re like, you’re wanting these guys – the pro guys – to be around, you know, because when they speak it’s like the Holy Grail. I speak, I’m like the old dad,” McDonnell said, laughing. “But when the pro guy or the big leaguer speaks, it’s like, ‘Corey Ray said I need to.’ We’re like, ‘Yeah, we’ve been saying that for three months.’ ”
In all seriousness, McDonnell’s got another guy in Chris Dominguez who turned into a coach as well and actually faced off against Louisville in the super regionals (Dominguez, 38, is an assistant coach for Miami who played for Louisville from 2007-09).
“While Corey was moving up the ranks and pro ball, I thought, ‘Man, this guy’s gonna be a good coach one day.’ And that’s cool. He’s phenomenal,” McDonnell said of Ray. “The Cubs are blessed to have him. Every time he comes back, he’s just thirsty to share. I’m very confident he will be a great college coach. I’m not saying he wants to or he will cross [over to the NCAA], but, yeah, I definitely see it because he’s got great personality, a great smile. I know he’ll connect with college kids. I know parents will trust him.”
The ACC, where Louisville has landed after stints in the Big East and American Athletic Conference, has never had a Black head baseball coach.
As for Ray, he’s someone who likes what he’s seeing from his alma mater.
“Zion [Rose] and I have talked a lot in the past year or two about what to get out of the experience at Louisville, why it’d be beneficial for him to stay. He’s a really good player,” Ray said. “He gets pulled in a bunch of different directions, and it’s a testament to Coach Mac and coach [Eric] Snider. They’ve been able to keep him there, and he loves being there. He’s glad that he stayed there.
“Zion is one of my favorites. Eddie’s one of my favorites. The center fielder who broke my stolen base record [Lucas Moore] is one of my favorites. I like the team as a whole. I think that the offense is very versatile, and I think the team spending time there on campus this summer and this spring is kind of a mirror of how we were when we were there in the early stages, right? We don’t care who we’re playing. We don’t care how much money you’re making.”
Louisville Cardinals infielder Kamau Neighbors during an NCAA regional game against ETSU on May 30 in Nashville.
AP Photo/John Amis
McDonnell isn’t exactly a funny guy, per se, but he knows how to make people laugh. He also knows how to make them think. He also knows when to keep his mouth shut. As a man of Christian faith, he holds nothing back when discussing his identity.
“You don’t have to be a Christian in our program. If anything, our whole motto is to love and to serve. So you can be any religious faith. You can be any nationality. It doesn’t matter. We’re just going to love on you. We’re going to serve you. That’s what we’re called to do,” McDonnell said Thursday following his team’s practice.
“But I’m sure we attract a lot of spiritual kids from spiritual families. But like I said you don’t have to. So that presence, maybe even in the transfer portal, bringing some older kids, 22-, 23-year-olds, that not only have a strong faith but you’re much more mature than you were probably at 18 and 19. And so it’s just who we are. It’s impressive. I think about that age. I wish I had more wisdom, a stronger faith and made better decisions. They know from me at least, when we talk about being a Christian, they know I’m not perfect. They see my best and they see my worst.”
One of those kids is Kamau Neighbors, who transferred from Cal State Northridge and was named a team captain. For McDonnell, it’s something that’s gained him trust in a lot of spaces. You don’t just walk into living rooms and start telling families, particularly Black ones, that they need to turn down real money to trust him with their son. And it doesn’t always work out for everyone, but when it does, it’s as much an outcrop of McDonnell just being himself, a guy with world experience.
We’re talking about a guy from upstate New York, who played at The Citadel, a military school in South Carolina. Now he’s been a longstanding head coach in a baseball-loving state, the only one of which at this MCWS actually has two teams, if you include Murray State.
The concepts of faith and family that extend to his team are a large part of why certain players get chances. That’s how the Chicago pipeline got started to begin with, to an extent. For Kenny Fullman, who helped start the Chicago White Sox Aces program, the process of creating a relationship wasn’t dumb luck.
Coaches know coaches, coaches know players, players have families and those families put faith in people. After a while, taking their kids to camps all over the country, eventually the Aces and Louisville had a clear connection that was helped by a little, well, spirited cajoling, shall we say.
“You make Louisville seem like it’s great, when where we grow up and we play in the snow and it’s cold and we’ve got to play a game in 30 degree weather in March. You go to Louisville and it’s 50, it feels like it’s spring. And so [McDonnell] is taking advantage of making Louisville seem like it’s South,” Ray said, with enough of a wink to remind you that the distance between those places is less than 300 miles.
Another thing that doesn’t come without some level of intention: For lack of a better term, you ain’t gonna get far trying to separate Black families. We know that experience generationally and even in good faith efforts such as baseball, that’s one you’ve got to get right to make sure that people feel safe.
“He likes the parents to be able to be within a day’s drive at the ballpark. So you know, Friday afternoon, if they take off work, they can make it down to [Louisville], catch a game, maybe stay overnight, catch another game Saturday and be able to get back. And so luckily for us, depending on traffic, you’re about a five-hour skim right up to get in the Chicago area,” Moth said.
Why every Major League team doesn’t have a travel program like Ace is beyond me. That’s perhaps another story for another day, but they don’t turn out losers.
As for family, both Ray and King have had two influences that are impossible not to acknowledge, and McDonnell hasn’t gotten in their way and wouldn’t think of it. When Ray was considering his options in baseball, there was a lot of thought in his family that going pro was a better option.
Except for one person: his older sister.
“I always give Corey sister a lot of credit. As a guy, I’m all about the dads and how much they pour into their sons. But like Eddie’s sister, she’s sharp,” McDonnell said regarding the recruitment of Ray. “She was in grad school, and here’s her younger brother, about to start college. We’re sitting at the table, and she is very engaged, very involved. And I’m like, ‘you know, I’ve been doing this for 30 years. I’ll walk out of somebody’s house and I’ll call our assistants, and I’ll be like, man, I don’t know if that dude’s showing up, right? … I walked out of Corey’s house. Bop into my car. I called our assistants. I said, ‘Hey, man, Corey Ray’s coming to school, how about that? I feel as good about him as I’ve ever felt.’ And they’re like, ‘Why you say that? ‘And I said, ‘the sister is all about education. She’s all about him getting his degree. She sat at the table. She was engaged, she made it sound like there’s no way we’re letting Corey sign [pro].’ ”
Back in Omaha, however, King — Louisville’s current star — has fans everywhere. The ones in his own home – -the people back at Ace who’ve seen him grow since he was 10 — are most happy to see show up. Fun fact: Eddie has a twin sister, who also goes to Louisville.
“I’ve been knowing the family, like I said, since Eddie was 10, and they’re just great people, man. The dad is a lot of fun to be around, and the mom is just extra-supportive,” Fullman said. “Always have been. And I looked on the TV today, the mom and daughter were in the front row.”
Like many Chicago folks who’ve come through Louisville, they had faith and found a family.
“I’m not worried about the color of their skin, man, I’m just not,” McDonnell concluded. “And I’m not going to act like, you know, I’m trying to break racial barriers and I sought to do that, okay? Just, you know, I just, I see people, and I love on people.”
In 2025, that seems like an effective method for success.
Clinton Yates is a tastemaker at Andscape. He likes rap, rock, reggae, R&B and remixes — in that order.
Kids are setting sail and learning the sport in Charlotte Harbor | Sports
Jessica Smith, a 14-year-old with a developed passion for sailing, is spending her summer out on the water. “My dad always wanted me to try like everything so he saw sailing and he put me in it,” said Smith. “I love the water. I love the ocean. I love boats. So I just got into […]
Jessica Smith, a 14-year-old with a developed passion for sailing, is spending her summer out on the water.
“My dad always wanted me to try like everything so he saw sailing and he put me in it,” said Smith. “I love the water. I love the ocean. I love boats. So I just got into it real quick.”
For the last six years, Smith returns to the Charlotte Harbor Yacht Club, honing her sailing skills through the Charlotte Harbor Youth Sailing Program.
“I usually have a terrible memory so I usually forget everything and when I come back, it comes back to me,” said Smith.
The program aims to teach kids about sailing while fostering respect for themselves, the environment, and others, according to Martin Holland, Commodore of the Charlotte Harbor Yacht Club and president of the Charlotte Harbor Youth Sailing.
“For some people, it unlocks a genuine love of this sport,” said Benjamin Rothstein, an assistant sailing instructor.
WINK News joined the kids on the water with Michael Bouhebent, a student-turned-sailing instructor, who shared his insights on the program.
“The most satisfying thing to me as someone who came in knowing absolutely nothing and you know eventually competing or doing something great with the skills they’ve learned out there,” said Bouhebent.
Bouhebent emphasized the importance of learning sailing skills, noting that for many young participants, it’s their first taste of independence.
“Most of the people here aren’t going to be able to drive a car for a long time so this is kind of the closest thing they’ll do. I want them to takeaway some confidence and freedom from this,” he said.
The program also teaches valuable safety skills, such as handling emergencies when someone is overboard or when a boat capsizes. For Smith, the experience has offered personal growth.
Police: Teen-driven stolen SUV crashes at Cheektowaga park
Police say 3 teens were behind the wheel and have been charged but were later released to their parents under state law. CHEEKTOWAGA, N.Y. — A summer evening of youth sports at Cheektowaga Town Park turned chaotic Monday when a stolen SUV driven by teenagers barreled through the park, narrowly missing hundreds of children before […]
Police say 3 teens were behind the wheel and have been charged but were later released to their parents under state law.
CHEEKTOWAGA, N.Y. — A summer evening of youth sports at Cheektowaga Town Park turned chaotic Monday when a stolen SUV driven by teenagers barreled through the park, narrowly missing hundreds of children before crashing into a parked vehicle.
The incident happened around 7:30 p.m., when Cheektowaga Police say detectives spotted a stolen 2008 Nissan Xterra at the Valero gas station across from the park. Officers approached the SUV and ordered the teens inside to exit. But instead, the driver threw the vehicle in reverse and sped away.
As officers pursued the vehicle, it veered into the crowded park — driving along sidewalks and grass areas where multiple youth football practices and softball games were underway. Officials estimate a few hundred people were present. For safety reasons, police called off the chase once the SUV entered the park.
Coaches and parents on the scene described terrifying moments as they scrambled to get kids out of the way.
“You heard people screaming, coaches, adults yelling, ‘Get out of the way, come over here,’” said Vidal Dinkins, who was coaching a football practice at the time. “All we could do is run for cover. We didn’t know whether to run left, run right.”
No pedestrians in the park were hit.
After exiting the park on Greenleaf Lane, the driver lost control and crashed into a parked vehicle. Angela Scholl says her husband was sitting inside that car, watching their 10-year-old son’s soccer practice.
Her husband was taken to ECMC and treated for injuries, including air around his heart and chemical burns from the deployed airbags. He was released early Tuesday morning.
“There was just some question about possible heart damage,” she said. “They had to do a CT scan just to clear him. He had a neck collar on for at least four to five hours before they could clear any back injury.”
“He feels like he saved the children from getting hit because if he wasn’t there, they literally would have went right into the soccer field.”
Police say three teenagers — two 14-year-olds and one 16-year-old — fled the crash on foot but were quickly caught after officers set up a perimeter. All three face multiple charges, including criminal possession of stolen property, unlawfully fleeing a police officer, reckless endangerment, criminal mischief, and assault.
Despite the charges, all three were released to their parents Monday night, as required under New York State law for juveniles.
“I don’t care if you’re 14,” Scholl said. “I understand you’re not an adult, but there still needs to be some accountability… This park should be for children to play, to meet new children, new friends. They should be able to come and feel safe. It should be a place for safety.”
Cheektowaga Police say they are reviewing body camera footage and continuing to investigate how the vehicle was stolen.
Bryan City Council approves new baseball agreement with Ventura Sports
BRYAN, Texas (KBTX) -The City of Bryan approved a new rental agreement Tuesday with Ventura Sports Group to bring a Mid-America League Baseball franchise to Travis Major Field beginning in 2026. The move comes as the Brazos Valley Bombers prepare to leave the stadium after nearly two decades. The three-year agreement includes an annual rental […]
BRYAN, Texas (KBTX) -The City of Bryan approved a new rental agreement Tuesday with Ventura Sports Group to bring a Mid-America League Baseball franchise to Travis Major Field beginning in 2026. The move comes as the Brazos Valley Bombers prepare to leave the stadium after nearly two decades.
The three-year agreement includes an annual rental fee of $32,000 and revenue sharing from advertising, sponsorships, concessions and broadcast rights. It also includes a league exclusivity clause for independent baseball but does not restrict amateur or youth events.
Under the previous agreement with the Bombers’ parent company, Infinity Sports Entertainment, the City of Bryan covered the cost of rent and utilities for nearly two decades. Bryan city leaders say the new agreement provides more value to taxpayers while securing a long-term tenant at Midtown Park.
“For nearly two decades, the City of Bryan has proudly supported the Brazos Valley Bombers,” Mayor Bobby Gutierrez said. “We respect their decision to leave Bryan and wish them continued success in their new home in College Station.”
City staff will assume full management of Travis Major Field in January 2026, including scheduling and operations. Ventura Sports Group will be responsible for delivering a 32-game home schedule plus four practice dates each season. No public funds will be used for upgrades or improvements to the field under the agreement.
During Tuesday’s meeting, council members expressed frustration over how the Bombers’ departure was announced.
“We all got the wool pulled over our eyes when we heard the announcement they were moving to College Station,” Gutierrez said.
During public comment, some Bryan residents urged city leaders to slow down and reconsider the decision. Michael Phillips said he supports more baseball in the community, but raised concerns about the Mid-America League’s track record.
“I feel like we have rushed this decision,” Phillips said. “If we did a little more research, we would know that this league has a ton of issues behind them and some really unmet expectations.”
Diane Carmichael echoed those concerns, calling the process “reactionary.” She questioned whether the city had fully vetted Ventura Sports Group and said public resources should be focused on supporting existing projects and youth sports.
“I don’t think we should worry about getting the shiny new thing just because our neighbors do,” Carmichael said. “We should be focusing on the families here now.”
Other councilmembers emphasized the new deal was vetted thoroughly and in the city’s best interest.
“I think this agreement is much more fair and equitable to all of our taxpayers who all deserve to be able to use it and who, at the end of the day, were the ones subsidizing the deal with our former team,” Councilwoman Marca Ewers-Shurtleff said.
Deputy City Manager Joey Dunn said city staff conducted background checks on Ventura and received positive references from other cities with teams in the league.
“This was not a quick decision. We did our homework,” Dunn said. “I checked personally with city managers in two other Texas cities. They had nothing but glowing reports on Mr. Schuster, his company, and the leagues operating there.”
Ventura Sports Group CEO Mark Schuster also addressed the public scrutiny.
“If anybody has been in business for 40 years, I don’t care if you are in the sports business or selling hamburgers, you are going to have disputes,” Schuster said. “It is part of business. It is part of life.”
KBTX News at Six Weekday EXTENDED(Recurring)
Schuster said the organization will launch a community-driven “Name the Team” contest in the coming weeks.
“We are all about inexpensive family entertainment,” Schuster said. “Our job is to give people an opportunity to escape for three hours, smile, and have fun, regardless of what the scoreboard says.”
Several councilmembers and city officials publicly criticized the Bombers’ ownership, accusing them of negotiating in bad faith and misleading the city about their future plans. Councilman Jared Salvato said city staff had held multiple meetings with the Bombers in an effort to craft a new deal, but were never provided formal financial documents.
“We received numbers on the back of a napkin,” Salvato said.
Council members said Bombers management warned of reputational consequences if their agreement was not renewed.
“We were ultimately posed with the threat that if we don’t continue the agreement that we’ve enjoyed for the last 18 years exactly how they wanted it, we could expect a PR nightmare,” said Marca-Ewers Shurtleff. Dunn confirmed the remark, adding that during a recent phone call, a Bombers representative told him, “This is war.”
Some councilmembers criticized recent local media coverage of the deal, suggesting it lacked balance.
“Sometimes a lot of our local media stories can seem extremely one-sided, and they don’t do the due diligence,” Salvato said during the discussion.
Schuster confirmed he had been contacted for comment and provided an interview, but declined to say whether he felt his statements were accurately included.
“I don’t read the media, so I have no idea,” he said.
The Bombers also responded to the public criticism following the meeting.
“Recently, my character and business practices were publicly criticized in a meeting I wasn’t present to attend or respond to. Some of the claims about how events unfolded were not only false, but deeply disappointing – especially coming from individuals I’ve worked alongside for years, who know the truth yet chose to protect their own interests instead,” Geva said.
Geva said the team remains committed to the Brazos Valley community.
“For nearly 20 years, I’ve invested in this community – not just through businesses, but through service. I’ve served on hospital boards, the Chamber of Commerce Executive Board, and remained committed to my faith and giving back. That’s who I am, he added.
Geva said the Bombers will continue offering affordable family entertainment and plan to play in College Station beginning in 2027.
“Alongside my business partner Chris, we’ve built a team rooted in integrity that has been proud to serve the City of Bryan and the entire Brazos Valley community. We’ve chosen the high road, even when others haven’t. That won’t change,” Geva said. “We remain committed to serving this community with honesty, respect, and affordable family entertainment. You don’t last nearly two decades without doing things the right way. We will continue doing that for our fans and community for the next twenty years.”
The new Bryan-based team will become the seventh franchise in the Mid-America League. Other teams are located in Abilene, Sherman and White Oak, Texas, Fort Smith, Arkansas, Joplin, Missouri and Texarkana.
Youth lacrosse tournament returns | News, Sports, Jobs
A Swamp Rabbits player shields the ball away from a Rush 2032 Rhinos player during a game on Tuesday in Lake Placid. (Enterprise photo — Parker O’Brien)
LAKE PLACID — The annual Lake Placid Summit Youth Classic kicked off on Monday at the North Elba Show Grounds and will wrap up […]
A Swamp Rabbits player shields the ball away from a Rush 2032 Rhinos player during a game on Tuesday in Lake Placid.
(Enterprise photo — Parker O’Brien)
LAKE PLACID — The annual Lake Placid Summit Youth Classic kicked off on Monday at the North Elba Show Grounds and will wrap up today.
The event, which originally began in 2016, featured boys lacrosse teams, aged 8 and under up to 16 and under, competing in five different divisions. There are about 46 teams this year, which is a bit higher than normal, according to event director Kevin Leveille.
“Usually we get up to around 46 and then we lose like four or so, but they’ve held it on, so it’s a good amount,” he said. “(There are) a couple of teams bigger than normal, but it fits right in here nicely, and we’ve got a good mix of teams.”
Leveille noted that some of the teams traveled from Canada, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland and even New Jersey.
“Then a lot of upstate teams and some from Long Island,” he said. There are also a couple of North Country-based teams — The NoCo Ripperz and Tru North.
For Leveille, who has been in charge of this tournament since its inception, said its great to be in Lake Placid for lacrosse.
“You get north of, you know, Saratoga or Watertown, and you can just smell the difference in the Adirondack air,” he said. “And it’s kind of like your whole mentality changes, and I think that’s kind of how everybody feels coming up here.”
Leveille said that about half of these squads are new to this tournament, so a lot of people are getting to experience Lake Placid for the first time. He said, so far, the reception has been super positive, and people were excited to enjoy the town.
“I know people were at the beach yesterday, and that was really a good thing all around. I’ve heard of people going to Experience Outdoors, over to the Olympic sites and I think people were going to the flum today. So, people are hitting the spots. I’ve heard a lot about good food, the local restaurants and it’s nice to know half the people and then have new people here, essentially introduce to the area.”
Following the LPSYC, Summit Lacrosse will host the 36th Lake Placid Summit Classic from July 28 to Aug. 3.
The Summit Classic showcases two tournaments over the course of a week starting with the scholastic tournament — consisting of youth, high school and college-age players — followed by the adult tournament, which includes a 65 and older age group.
The Summit Lacrosse Society hosted tournaments in Albany, Saratoga, Denver and in California earlier in the year.
For Leveille, whose father, George, founded the Summit Classic here in 1990, the tournaments here are special to him.
“It’s a different vibe; generally, tournaments are like over two days and you go sit in a field at a high school and there’s not much to do,” he said. “But because we’re over three days and people are on vacation, it’s not chewing up a weekend, people are just in a better mood. They’re making the most of like the time outside of the fields and kind of setting up and just having little hangouts with snacks during the day.”
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Jamel Dewayne Wynn, 35, of Fort Wayne, IN, gained his wings on June 29th, 2025. Jamel was born on November 25th, 1989, in Frankfurt, Germany to parents Lee and Pamela Wynn. During his childhood, he was an avid basketball and football player. He played on several travel youth Basketball teams while in Kalamazoo, Michigan. He […]
Jamel Dewayne Wynn, 35, of Fort Wayne, IN, gained his wings on June 29th, 2025.
Jamel was born on November 25th, 1989, in Frankfurt, Germany to parents Lee and Pamela Wynn.
During his childhood, he was an avid basketball and football player. He played on several travel youth Basketball teams while in Kalamazoo, Michigan. He also played basketball and football at Woodside Middle School, located in Fort Wayne, IN.
While in high school, Jamel developed a love for art, photography, and film. He took several photography and art classes at Paul Harding High School.
In 2008, Jamel graduated from Paul Harding High School. Upon graduation, he then transitioned to The Art Institute of Madison. In 2011, he earned his associates degree in media, film, and design.
Jamel worked as a manager for Little Caesars for several years. He was also a part of the film and video production crew for the TinCaps.
Jamel was passionate about cinematography, photography, and creating content for social media. He loved to watch movies and sports. He was also interested in investing, sales, and marketing.
Remaining to cherish Jamel’s memory are parents, Lee (Yolonda) Wynn and Pamela (Christopher Palomo) Wynn; grandmother, Annie Yancey; sister, Jameshia (Cameron) Shackelford; niece and nephew, Summer Shackelford and nephew, to be born December 2025; aunts, Betty Poinus and Chuckie Smith; uncles, Tracy Wynn, Tyrence Williams and Ivan Williams; special friend, McKaila McBride; and a host of loving cousins, friends, and co-workers.
Preceding Jamel in death are grandmother, June Mitchell; grandfather, Curtis Mitchell Sr.; and uncles, Curtis Mitchell Jr. and Kevin Mitchell Sr.
Visitation will be held at 10:00 A.M. on July 10th, 2025, at Ellis Funeral home. Funeral service will be held directly afterward, beginning at 11:00 A.M.
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Youth Sports Billion-Dollar Building Boom Has Developers, Cities Playing Ball
Pro sports mean big money for commercial real estate, especially as increasingly elaborate mixed-use districts are established around stadiums. But with billions of dollars flooding into new projects centered around youth sports, it’s not just the pros driving development opportunities. Commercial real estate and local economic development officials see incredible potential in America’s increasingly expensive […]
Pro sports mean big money for commercial real estate, especially as increasingly elaborate mixed-use districts are established around stadiums. But with billions of dollars flooding into new projects centered around youth sports, it’s not just the pros driving development opportunities.
Commercial real estate and local economic development officials see incredible potential in America’s increasingly expensive relationship with kids’ sports, and the increased time and financial commitments families are willing to make.
“I know it seems like a large-scale undertaking and a large-scale development, but there’s multibillions of dollars of development directly around these facilities,” said Montierre Development CEO Jaime Douglas, whose firm is set to break ground on a $1B youth sports project in suburban Orlando. “We’re just taking all the parts of the ecosystem of travel sports and combining them into one project.”
Courtesy of Montierre Development
The Dynasty is a $1B development centered around youth sports in Ocoee, Florida.
The Dynasty, expected to break ground this year in Ocoee, Florida, represents the latest generation of all-in-one, mixed-use developments using the booming youth athletics economy as an anchor.
The 159-acre complex will include 150K SF of high-tech indoor training facilities; 17 convertible fields for soccer, football, baseball and lacrosse; a pair of full-service hotels; and 350K SF of dining, retail and entertainment — a mecca for little leagues and a magnet for parents’ money.
According to the Aspen Institute’s latest Project Play study, the $40B that families are collectively spending on youth sports annually is twice the amount that flows through the NFL.
The average U.S. family spent $1,016 on their child’s primary sport in 2024, including $414 on travel and lodging. That’s a 46% increase over the last five years. Factor in spending on other sports, and that figure climbs to $1,500 per child. Those figures highlight why a project like the Dynasty can boast multiple revenue streams from hosting tournaments.
“You may come for two hours of sports,” said Anne-Marie Douglas, president of Montierre Development, “but then you have 22 hours of hospitality that you can utilize as a family.”
Sports Facilities Cos. co-founder and CEO Jason Clement predicts the youth sports industry, which is currently valued at $52B, will hit $77B in the next couple of years.
His firm, which designs, builds and operates these facilities, has 25 projects in the pipeline across the country. Cities are recognizing the return on investment, he said, seeing other municipalities succeed and wondering why they’re sending their kids and dollars elsewhere.
“The highest and best use for a piece of property is not a bunch of ball fields, right?” Clement said. “But municipalities now are saying, well, hold on a second. This is an important component of our infrastructure, in terms of quality of life, but it can also spur economic growth, so it’s worth the investment.”
Traditionally, cities and municipalities have provided land to real estate developers willing to build out vast swaths of pitches, ball fields and practice grounds for young athletes.
But as travel leagues have become more commonplace, and tournament play more popular, what was once a collection of fields with a few concession stands has become vast multi-use districts with vacation-level entertainment options as well as bars and restaurants for the parents.
The Dynasty, for example, combined 11 parcels of land to create a large assemblage near major highways and a short drive from a collection of top-tier theme parks. Officials in Ocoee saw it as a key part of their economic redevelopment plan. Studies done for Montierre Development forecast that there will be up to 8 million annual visitors to the complex annually.
Take the 276-acre Legacy Pointe project in Springfield, Illinois, which includes the $67M Scheels Sports Park, named after a local sports and recreation store, and the nation’s largest air-supported dome.
Developer Steve Luker said he and his firm, Legacy Pointe Development, had been working on the project for more than a decade. And in 2017, the city of Springfield began looking into the benefits of a sports complex, commissioning a study from a consulting group and eventually offering to partner with any developer willing to take on the project.
“Our vision was to create something where people would come, stay, eat and play,” Luker said. “But this evolved, and now it’s bigger than we had dreamed to begin with. The families coming in Thursday nights and leaving Sunday night never have to leave the development.”
Many of these new complexes have been designed to be flexible and multi-use in order to host a variety of sports for as much of the year as possible, with the option to host corporate events and concerts during gaps in the schedule.
In addition to perennial powerhouses like basketball, soccer and baseball, sports including flag football, ice hockey and lacrosse have gained traction, and girls’ sports have shown substantial growth and expansion.
The industry has detailed projections on hotel room nights and spending broken down per sport. For boys’ basketball, players tend to share hotel rooms, versus girls’ volleyball, where there tends to be a room per player and family. The Dynasty is being conceived as a true vacation destination due to its location near Orlando, setting up the opportunity to cash in.
Courtesy of Montierre Development
The Dynasty development will feature 17 fields as well as retail, restaurants and hotels.
“The spend per family for these events has doubled in the last five years,” Clement said.
Often, these projects will be structured as public-private partnerships, where municipalities use subsidies to bring in private developers, who use the sports complex as an anchor tenant to ideally bring in additional commercial projects and catalyze economic development.
In Overland Park, Kansas, AdventHealth Sports Park at Bluhawk, a $125M, 420K SF complex with an ice rink, turf fields and basketball and volleyball courts, was developed by Price Brothers Management Co. with $53M of state-issued sales tax and revenue bonds.
In New Lenox, Illinois, where the 100-acre Crossroads Sports Complex is being built, town leaders have designated 70 adjacent acres for retail, restaurants and hotels as a means to capture tax dollars and pay for the facility’s development. For the Scheels project at Legacy Pointe in Springfield, a local sales and hotel tax will help support the development, and local organizations, including Scheels and the Springfield Clinic, will be partners.
“The developers who are successful in developing privately as part of a broader development are still utilizing heavy public incentives,” Clement said.
The industry has also brought in substantial private equity investment, which is attracted to a youth sports landscape that is fragmented among numerous leagues, regions, games and tournament providers.
Youth Sports Business Report founder Cameron Korab said the landscape is “100% changing,” with an influx of private equity capital and a number of roll-ups, in which different sports entities and leagues get combined under one roof by groups like Unrivaled Sports. This push for bigger groups and more tournaments has created a massive need for more facilities, said Korab, which has been one of the biggest drivers of this big cash inflow into the industry.
“These destination-type facilities are a mix of Disney World and youth sports,” Korab said. “Sports are expensive, vacations are expensive, so why not merge the two? Parents are spending not just their whole weekend, but their whole summer at these events.”
Despite the presence of projects like The Dynasty, where the entire development and entertainment ecosystem is owned by a private developer/operator, Clement says he’s seeing more projects trend back toward municipal ownership of the sports complex.
Local leaders want to control the sports facilities to ensure that local leagues and residents have access to much-needed recreational facilities, he said, and they can quickly see the benefits from such developments by creating tax increment financing districts around the sports fields and leveraging hotel taxes so these larger events can help pay for the development over time.
There have been some misses. Developers behind the $250M Arizona Athletic Grounds pleaded guilty to securities fraud and identity theft after their bid to bamboozle investors came to light earlier this year. It’s easy to see one of these complexes on a summer weekend “printing money” and make some erroneous financial assumptions about the financing and business model, Clement said.
And youth sports participation, now at 54.6%, has waned slightly from its prepandemic high of 56.1% of kids, potentially a sign of other interests and increasing financial burdens making it harder to participate in tournaments and expensive lessons.
But the increasing interest in the youth sports economy and real estate suggests the boom isn’t over.
“I don’t think it’s been overbuilt, I think it’s drastically underbuilt,” Douglas said.
LeBron is opting into $52.6M player option for the 2025-26 season – Shams Charania | SC
