Keystone Heights to host special-needs baseball league

For the first time ever, a Clay County group is hosting a baseball league for children with special needs.

“Special-needs kids in this area do not have the chance to get out and play sports like the regular kids do,” Angela Clance said.

Clance takes her 15-year-old son Nigel to St. Johns County to play, but now a group is bringing a league to Keystone Heights.

“This allows them to have a chance to focus and get motor skills,” Kassandra Bryan said. “They can play, be part of something, run the bases, get that energy out. Have fun.”

Bryan is CEO of Embrace Community Center, the nonprofit behind the league.

She said right after she put out a request for volunteers, she got a call from the baseball coach at Bradford High School.

“(He said) all my kids are coming and participating for every game. I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh.’ I’m starting to cry. I didn’t realize this was going to be so unifying in this community,” Bryan said.

Bryan told Action News Jax that children with special needs will each have a buddy – a student athlete or volunteer who will guide them through the game.

She said the four games in February are an opportunity for community members to get to know kids like Nigel.

“All these kids in the school system can thrive, can feel important, feel like they’re part of something,” she said.

She said her group is hoping to put on the league every year – and eventually open a community center in Keystone Heights.

“We put our focus in special needs, in veterans, in children with disabilities,” she said.  “We want them all to be unified in a community center where we have after-school programs and support them.”

You can learn more about Embrace Community Center on its Facebook page.

Cox Media Group