Take me out to the ballgame
Little League Challenger Division takes disables children from the bleechers onto the ballfield.
By Dave Gerardi
 "John" is one of Coach Dan Valerio’s former Little League players. He played in the Challenger Division, specifically aimed at children with mental and physical disabilities. Valerio began by having a parent or coach swing the bat at the ball on the tee with John. Then the Bristol, Conn., Challenger Division got him a ball that beeps. Eventually, John was hitting a regular ball off the tee. John is blind.
Ed Beardsley founded the Challenger League in 1986. "His son was a special needs child and he started the league with four or five kids in Bristol," says Dee Valerio...Matyka, Little League’s Challenger coordinator for Bristol, and state coordinator for Connecticut (Dan Valerio is her husband). Within a few short years, the Challenger Division was chartered under Little League, the long...time organizer of baseball and softball children’s leagues throughout the world.
Valerio...Matyka’s league has recruited ‘regular’ Little League players to help work with the Challenger kids. "It teaches them that it’s okay to be different," she explains. They also employ a buddy system whereby adults or other kids work one...on...one with kids in the field. The buddies encourage the players to go after the ball, throw it and help them run around the bases. "We like to have the same buddies week to week because the kids don’t like change," she says.
The results speak for themselves. "The smile on their face as they run around the bases says it all. We’ve had kids who can’t do anything at the beginning of the season," Valerio...Matyka says. "They come in very non...verbal. At the end, the parents come up and tell us he can’t wait to get at bat and can’t wait for baseball."
The Bristol league accepts kids from surrounding towns who don’t have their own Challenger Divisions. The league is a big part of the annual Ed Beardsley Challenger Fun Day, which celebrated its 18th anniversary this past Father’s Day weekend. "It’s a whole day for the kids," says Valerio...Matyka, who got involved because her parents ran the carnival games and her father coached Little League. "It doesn’t cost anybody anything," she adds. "We raise the money." Activities include baseball, basketball, lunch, prizes and a big concert at the end of the day.
The chief obstacle of the Challenger league, she says, is awareness. "People don’t know we exist. There’re funds out there through Little League that will help you start a program." Other issues are mainly ignorance. "Some of those coaches have this attitude like, ‘let some real players practice.’ They don’t know how lucky they are. These (Challenger) kids play a sport that normal kids take for granted."
 Dan Valerio has coached Little League for 12 years and Challenger teams for four. "It’s very rewarding. Some of them have never held a baseball bat before. The looks on their face when they get their first hit...It’s exciting and fun to watch." Valerio coaches a wide range of children. Some have autism, Down’s syndrome, muscular dystrophy and AD...HD. Everybody plays. Everybody goes in the field. Everybody scores. "Everybody’s happy," he adds.
There’s no comparison, he says, to ‘regular’ Little League. "The parents in Little League...I can’t even say." That’s not to say the Challenger Division is always smooth sailing: "When the kids get up to bat, they get so excited that they will throw the bat. You stress, ‘drop the bat,’ but I’ve taken a few bats off my head."
Valerio’s approach to coaching is simple: learn from the kids. "Each kid has a different personality. Some kids you can’t touch; others like to be touched and give you a high five." A common obstacle is shyness. "We find one person who will stay with that child, and after a few weeks the child will open up more," he says. "Parents can’t believe how much their child improves."
Seventh inning stretch
Anthony Chironno is a Challenger coach and the Challenger Division director for Lindenhurst American Little League. One of Chironno’s neighbors was involved in the Challenger Division and had suggested trying it. Chironno and his son, Nicky, did- Nicky as a player, Chironno as a coach. Getting Nicky involved was a slow process. Many times, he only wanted to sit and watch. Gradually, he began to get into the field. Last year, he batted and fielded on his own. "He’s gotten very independent," says Chironno proudly. "He wanted no help from me as a coach. He learned by watching other kids."
Chironno encourages volunteer coaches, buddies and guardians (he has a lot of foster kids in the program) to get involved. Buddies are players who have aged out of Little League (the limit is 21) and come back to help the kids, especially in the field. "It’s good for the kids to see someone like them who is older," Chironno adds.
Nicky, who recently turned 12, has high functioning autism. Chironno’s wife, Donna, is a registered nurse and "knew right off the bat that something was wrong." Nicky was diagnosed at 2 and attends James E. Allen Learning Center in Dix Hills, N.Y. When the son of the prior director of New York’s Lindenhurst American Little League Challenger Division aged out, Chironno said, "what the hell" and signed up. "I had the blueprint to follow, so it hasn’t been that bad to organize," he explains. We don’t charge any money; sponsorships take care of that.
Chironno believes Little League baseball has greatly helped special needs children. Specifically, he has seen improvement in the way they interact, socialize and take turns. "I’ve seen them grow through the years," he says. "Kids who once existed in their own little world now cheer each other on."
The Challenger Division is non...competitive. Everyone gets to hit, field and run around the bases. Chironno calls non...competition "a big plus. A lot of the kids have emotional problems as well, and I don’t want to see them go back to the bench crying." Chironno does, however, like to have batters pitched to rather than use a tee. "We haven’t used a tee in a few years. Kids get more of a thrill feeling the bat on the ball rather than swinging against a stationary object."
Most of the feedback he gets from parents is constructive, Chironno says. "Every so often I get a parent who wants the kids to play competitive games. That’s what the other Little League is for." Chironno has had two players move on to "regular" Little League, one with Asperger’s syndrome, the other with AD...HD.
Unlike "regular" Little League, kids in the Challenger Division are grouped by ability rather than age. Chironno’s division, for example, has two teams for kids who can hit the ball hard and four for younger, newer and more disabled players. "My goal is to get these kids mainstreamed into ‘regular’ Little League. My focus," he adds, "is on everyone having fun."
Recently, Chironno, a federal law enforcement agent, has added a new line to his résumé: lyricist. While waiting to execute an arrest warrant one night, he heard a John Fogerty song on the radio. He started writing rhymes on the back of Dunkin Donuts napkins. A buddy from college, Ben Rudnick, is a working musician. Rudnick tweaked the words and wrote the music. "I’d never written with somebody before," Rudnick explains. "It was great to do it with someone I’ve known since back in the day.
A year ago, Rudnick and his band played at the Long Island Children’s Museum. "There was a woman with a disabled daughter in front," Rudnick recalls. "Once we hit the Challenger song, she had a big smile on her face. She was really into it. The mother looked at the daughter and at us and couldn’t believe it. I guess we opened some doors. That’s a great feeling."
Chironno brought the song up to a meeting in the Bristol, Conn., offices. He played the song alongside a slideshow of Challenger Division games. "Everyone started welling up," he remembers. Little League has embraced the song’s use as a fund raising device. "Other Challenger leagues are using it," Chironno explains. "They get it at cost, and proceeds go to the Challenger program."
"Accepted and happy"
Cathy Boyle, whose 10...year...old son Corey has autism, was looking for activities he could participate in without ridicule. "It was very had to find things for him that were geared for a child with disabilities," she explains. Many options were either expensive or too far way. Another parent mentioned Chironno’s Lindenhurst Challenger Division.
The league has gotten the whole family involved. Husband Hughy coaches. Son Hughie, 12, and daughter Mackenzie, 9, are peer mentors who help teach the other kids how to run the bases and bat. "It’s a family thing for us. It’s nice that we can all participate and that no one’s going to judge us."
Corey, she says, feels very accepted and happy. "Just those two things in itself will help any child," she explains. "It gives him the freedom to be who he is and feel part of something."
The other social benefits, such as learning comraderie and patience are an added bonus. For Cathy, being in an environment where other parents can empathize is comforting. "At other activities, parents ask, ‘why is he doing that? Why is he a bad kid?’ Here, they understand. It’s not only comraderie for him; it’s also for us."
For more information, check out LittleLeague.org.
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