It was a great inaugural season for the City of Miami Gardens Youth Sports (CMGYS) 2011 Baseball Program! There were 4 teams and 70 baseball players ages 4 to 12 years old traveling to compete. Practices were held at Bunche Park during the season, and games were played in the City of Miami Gardens as well as neighboring cities.
The City of Miami Gardens was represented extremely well by our T-ball players, the “Miami Gardens Athletics”. The Athletics consisted of 12 players ranging in ages 4 to 6 years old. The main focus for this group of children was for the coaches to teach sportsman -ship , teamwork, as well as the basics of catching, hitting, and running around the bases. During everyTball game the children did an outstanding job by playing extremely hard and showed great sportsmanship after each game by shaking hands and giving high fives. The A’s played most of their games in Aventura and a tournament was held at Pepper Park. The A’s also played one of their games in Sun Life Stadium, home to our Florida Marlins. You can really tell the children loved it, as well as learned a lot.
The City’s coaches pitch 8 and underteam “Miami Gardens Dodgers”had a great season! With a team roster of 20 baseball players which included 17 boys and 3 girls, the Dodgers won 18 of their 20 games.
The Dodgers also played in Aventura, and won every game in the entire league and advanced to play in the championship game. The Dodgers competed and won the tournament that was held at Pepper Park. The Dodgers also had the opportunity to play at Sun Life Stadium which was very exciting for the young boys who experienced playing on a championship field. The young boys really showed teamwork throughout the entire season on and off the field. Recently the team was recognized by the City Council at one of the City’s Meeting where each team player was awarded a certificate for “Excellent Play”.
The City’s 10 and under league was represented by the “Miami Gardens Braves”. This age group learned how to play baseball at a faster pace. The players were taught everything from pitching, running the bases at a high rate of speed, and hitting the baseball extremely hard. Although, they had a slow start to the season, by the 7th game they beat Pepper Park Marlins in the last inning. The crowd was amazed and the children were extremely excited to pick-up their first win of the season. As the season progressed, the Braves made it to the playoffs and the children showed a great amount of progress throughout the season. Coach Lee Jones, stated that the City of Miami Gardens has a lot of young talent and he looks forward to working with the youth of our community in the years to come. Over half of the children who played on our 10 and under team could have played on the 8 and under coach pitch team, but decided to play up and work on their skills for the future. So next season, look out for our 10 and under Miami Gardens Braves!
