Moorestown Township’s Challenger Baseball will be held at John Pryor Park baseball field at the corner of Salem and Hartford roads on Saturdays through the end of October.
Challenger Baseball – for ages 5 and above – is an adaptive baseball program for individuals with physical and intellectual challenges. The program is free, but all participants must be pre-registered. Equipment, including bats and balls, will be provided.
“There’s something out there for their (a parent’s) child to feel a part of something, to feel what it’s like to hit a baseball, to run the bases, to be with other kids and to score,” said program sponsor Ken Catanella.
Challenger Baseball began in the fall of 2018 and continued in 2019, 2021, 2022 and 2023. Participants receive a shirt and hat and there is an end-of-season party at the recreation center with a catered lunch and trophies. Photo day is Saturday, Sept. 28.
The baseball program is an (Americans with Disabilities Act) ADA-compliant activity. There will be volunteer baseball “buddies” to assist in any capacity: hitting, fielding and base running. Catanella and his wife Cheryl continue to financially sponsor the program and he will pitch again this year.
“In the ‘23 season, we had 30 kids sign up and register and play, plus 26 buddies,” Catanella said. “The buddies are Little League kids who come and join and partner with the kids and stand there when they’re at the bat, help them get a feel for the bat, help them put their hands at the right place, sometimes help them hit the ball, escort them down the bases and try to give them gentle instructions so they have fun.”
The popular township program started years ago after Catanella watched his grandson play baseball in California and heard screaming and yelling at a nearby field, where he watched a Challenger Baseball game. The rest is history.
“I took it back (to New Jersey) and knocked on the door of Theresa (Miller, former director of the parks and recreation department) and said, ‘This is what I’d like to do, and I’ll fund every penny of it. Let’s go.’ And that’s when it started in 2018.”
To register for Challenger Baseball, visit www.moorestown.nj.us/504/Special-Needs-Programs.
“I say this at the (end-of-season) party,” Catanella noted … ‘I see what you (parents) go through.’ It’s a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week job and it’s hard.
“They are the heroes.”
