The Katie Den Enterprises Bayside Little League team cheered 'One-two-three Newtown!' after winning the championship. The team wore patches to remember the tragedy.
They had a perfect season for the kids of Newtown.
Last week, a special Bayside Little League team became the junior division champions after going 20-0 while wearing patches bearing a single word that needs no explanation: “Newtown.”
It became the Queens team’s rallying cry before, during and after every single game of the long season in a cold, wet spring.
Led by a colorful coach named Jerry Costa, the motivated team hurtled to victory like a runaway locomotive.
The idea of dedicating the year to the gun violence victims started when a story appeared in the Daily News in March about walking through the Newtown cemetery just before Christmas. Frost chilled the earth like the ice around the heart of the nation over the unspeakable killings of 20 children and six educators in Sandy Hook Elementary School on Dec. 14.
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I wrote about how the Newtown cemetery was set on a hill overlooking a Little League field, how that was a flawless diamond that would sparkle forever in the minds of most kids who ever played there.
And as my kid and millions more like him prepared to start their Little League spring season, I thought how blessed we all were as I recalled backhoes in December, digging holes for tiny coffins in the field of the dead up the hill from that field of dreams.
I lamented how so many of those slaughtered kids, including Chase Kowalski, 7, would never again get the chance to swing a bat on a spring morning.
“Our team was named for our sponsor, Katie Den Enterprises, and we’d already had about six practices in the Bayside Batting Cage,” Costa says. “Then I received an email from Luis Avila, the father of one of my players, who works for Red Cross.”
The email read: “Hi Coach Jerry, I read the Daily News story ‘Field of the Dead’ about Chase Kowalski, and the rest of the children lost in Newtown and it inspired an idea . . . Could we possibly honor Chase and the rest of the children by having the boys wear a band on their uniform . . . a simple ‘Newtown’? I would cover the expense . . .”
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Costa, a dedicated but gruff coach, is not known for sentimentality. But like everyone else in the nation the mere mention of Newtown brings tears to his eyes.
Last week, a special Bayside Little League team became the junior division champions after going 20-0 while wearing patches bearing a single word that needs no explanation: “Newtown.”
It became the Queens team’s rallying cry before, during and after every single game of the long season in a cold, wet spring.
Led by a colorful coach named Jerry Costa, the motivated team hurtled to victory like a runaway locomotive.
The idea of dedicating the year to the gun violence victims started when a story appeared in the Daily News in March about walking through the Newtown cemetery just before Christmas. Frost chilled the earth like the ice around the heart of the nation over the unspeakable killings of 20 children and six educators in Sandy Hook Elementary School on Dec. 14.
Katie Den Enterprises team went 20-0 while wearing patches bearing a single word: 'Newtown.'
I wrote about how the Newtown cemetery was set on a hill overlooking a Little League field, how that was a flawless diamond that would sparkle forever in the minds of most kids who ever played there.
And as my kid and millions more like him prepared to start their Little League spring season, I thought how blessed we all were as I recalled backhoes in December, digging holes for tiny coffins in the field of the dead up the hill from that field of dreams.
I lamented how so many of those slaughtered kids, including Chase Kowalski, 7, would never again get the chance to swing a bat on a spring morning.
“Our team was named for our sponsor, Katie Den Enterprises, and we’d already had about six practices in the Bayside Batting Cage,” Costa says. “Then I received an email from Luis Avila, the father of one of my players, who works for Red Cross.”
Chase Kowalski at Yankee Stadium. Chase was killed during the Dec. 14 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.
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Costa, a dedicated but gruff coach, is not known for sentimentality. But like everyone else in the nation the mere mention of Newtown brings tears to his eyes.
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/queens/bayside-league-champs-win-big-newtown-article-1.1383527#ixzz2YcrCAOcn
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