Play ball! Parade and ceremonies kick off youth sports
JOEL MARTIN | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 6 years, 6 months AGO
Joel Martin/Columbia Basin Herald Players and their coaches round the bases to exchange high-fives at the Moses Lake youth sports opening day ceremony Saturday.
Joel Martin/Columbia Basin Herald A truck loaded with baseball players makes its way proudly down Third Avenue at the Moses Lake Youth Sports Parade Saturday.
Joel Martin/Columbia Basin Herald Parade grand marshals Rick Koba (left) and Pete Doumit were honored for their decades of service at the Moses Lake youth sports opening day ceremony Saturday.
Joel Martin has been with the Columbia Basin Herald for more than 25 years in a variety of roles and is the most-tenured employee in the building. Martin is a married father of eight and enjoys spending time with his children and his wife, Christina. He is passionate about the paper’s mission of informing the people of the Columbia Basin because he knows it is important to record the history of the communities the publication serves. | April 22, 2018 10:14 PM
MOSES LAKE — The wind was blowing fast and furious, but the sun was bright and so were the spirits of the players, coaches and families who took part in the Moses Lake Youth Baseball Parade and Opening Day Ceremonies Saturday morning. The event is a 15-year-old tradition, said Moses Lake Youth Baseball Association secretary Marie Jones.
The parade featured most if not all of the teams playing in both the MLYBA and the Columbia Basin Girls Softball Association. Each team decked out a vehicle – mostly pickup trucks – in the parking lot at McCosh Park. At 10 a.m. the parade began winding its way down Fourth Avenue, then back up Third Avenue to Broadway and out to the Larson Playfield. There the teams arranged themselves on the ball field, boys on either side of third base and girls around first, for the ceremony that would kick off their season.
One spectator was Gina Adams, whose granddaughter played softball with the Blazing Beauties. “I like it,” she said of the program. “It gives the kids something to do and a chance to interact with other kids. They learn sportsmanship and that it’s not about winning or losing.”
Her son Deandrae Adams agreed. He had played in little league 30 years ago, he said, coached by the late David Cunningham and by Pete Doumit, who was one of the grand marshals of this year’s parade.
Moses Lake City Council member Mike Riggs opened the ceremony. After an invocation by Pastor Dave Dechape, the American Legion presented colors for the flag salute. Distinguished Young Women runner-up Renee Ohs and her friend Halle Davis delivered a beautiful rendition of the National Anthem. Next Riggs introduced the “dynamic duo” of Doumit and his co-grand marshal Rick Koba, presenting them with a plaque and listing their contributions over several decades to local youth sports.
One by one as the teams were introduced by MLYBA president Kurt Kuykendall, they came running down the base line to exchange high-fives with the dignitaries gathered around home plate. The energy level on the field promised an exciting season to come.
“Even though the weather wasn’t perfect, it was so much fun,” said Carrie Hoiness of Moses Lake Parks and Rec, who coordinated the event for the first time. “Watching the children’s faces as they drove through the parade or as they ran the bases giving high-fives to the high school baseball and softball teams is what this event is all about.”