"The Sister Cities program is an important
resource to the negotiations of governments in letting the people themselves
give expression of their common desire for friendship, good will and
cooperation for a better world for all."
- Dwight David
Eisenhower
For many of the same reasons that President 'Ike'
Eisenhower endorsed the Sister Cities program in the 1950's, the Virginia
Mustangs of Stafford, Virginia, USA; and the Portstewart Eagles of
Portstewart, County Londonderry, Northern Ireland, have formed a Sister Team relationship.
The goals of the Mustangs' and Eagles' Sister Team
program are summarized as follows:
Create opportunities for
our baseball players in Northern Ireland and Virginia to learn and
experience other cultures through long-term relationships.
Create an atmosphere that
builds on our common passion for baseball to stimulate an
exchange of baseball news, tips, strategies and just plain baseball talk
between players, coaches and parents from both sides of the 'Pond'.
Enable the Eagles' to benefit from a relationship
with a team based in a country where baseball is the national pastime and
where our youth have played the game for years - often since the toddler
stage.
Enable the Mustangs' to benefit from a relationship
with a team based in a country where baseball is an oddity, but whose
members have baseball 'heart' and the 'right stuff' to succeed against all
odds.
Foster a relationship that could one day lead to
team and family visits for games, scrimmages, or just plain socializing;
both in Virginia and Northern Ireland.
The
Virginia Mustangs are very excited about the Sister Team relationship with
the Portstewart Eagles and are proud to be associated with an organization
that is fully dedicated to a sport that plays 'second-fiddle' in a nation
where soccer is king. Baseball fields, instruction, and sporting goods
stores that sell baseball equipment are a rarity. There are no AAU or USSSA
leagues that build off little league baseball. No travel teams, no real
tournaments. The vast majority of the players have never seen a minor,
major, or any other league (for that matter) game. Yet the Eagles' persist,
coach Gene Powers and two Eagles' players were selected to represent the
All-Ireland team in the European Regional Playoffs of the Little League
World Series in Kutno, Poland. While they did not get past that round, they
returned to Northern Ireland more determined than ever to take Irish
baseball to the 'next level'.
During March, April and May
2004, the
Virginia Mustangs collected up new and used baseball equipment and
sent it off to Coach Gene Powers of the Eagles. Equipment included
bats, bags, gloves, balls, catcher's gear and helmets to be used by both our
sister team and by other newly forming baseball teams in Northern Ireland
and Ireland.
In honor of our special relationship
the newest team in Northern Ireland has been named the Portrush Mustangs.
Fredericksburg Free-Lance Star
Team is Covering All The Bases
October 22, 2004
By LUCIA ANDERSON Stafford AAU helps out Irish players
When Irish youngsters go out to play ball, they're heading for the soccer
pitch, not the baseball diamond. So when Dave Dilegge of Stafford County ran
across a Web site for a youth baseball team in Northern Ireland, he was
intrigued.
"I'm a rabid baseball fan," said Dilegge, a former Little League and AAU
coach. Now he acts as Webmaster for the Virginia Mustangs, an AAU team based
in Stafford County. His son, David, plays second base and shortstop for the
team.
Wanting to know more about baseball in such an unlikely spot, Dilegge
e-mailed the Eagles' coach, Gene Powers.
"I was impressed with his enthusiasm," Dilegge said, "what he was doing
to promote baseball."
Powers grew up in the United States, and played baseball here as a child.
"I wanted my kids to know the same joy of playing baseball that I had
experienced when I was growing up," Powers wrote in an e-mail.
Three of his children, 15-year-old Hannah, 13-year-old Rory and
11-year-old Colin, are playing on his team, along with 35 to 40 other boys
and girls ranging in age from 6 to 16.
Powers said the original players were friends or classmates of his
children.
Then children playing in the park where the Eagles practice would linger
and get invited to play.
"Once the kids play the game, many are hooked," Powers wrote.
"I don't know what it is about [baseball], there's just something inside
you that springs to life when you hear that one word, 'baseball,'" Hannah
Powers said in an e-mail. "Maybe it's the thrill when you hit a double and a
run scores. Or when you catch a fly ball, and you hear the voices of your
team cheering around you. You just feel this one different emotion inside
you, that no other sport can cover."
But finding equipment is always a problem, Powers said.
"Gloves usually come in two sizes: too big or too small. Both are too
expensive for starters. Balls are virtually nonexistent."
He has gone on eBay to get equipment, he said.
Finding other teams to play is also a problem.
"Currently, as far as I know, we are the only youth team playing in
Northern Ireland," Powers wrote. "Our nearest competitors are literally in
another country, the Republic of Ireland, a 31/2-hour drive away. Mostly we
mainly divide up our team and play a game ourselves every Sunday."
Inspired by the sister-city program, Dilegge suggested the Mustangs adopt
the Eagles as a sister team.
The Stafford boys thought the sister-team idea was a good one, and so did
the Eagles.
"It teaches our kids more than baseball," Dilegge said.
The Virginia boys decided that they could help their Irish counterparts
by sending them some equipment.
"As my son got older he would outgrow his equipment," said Jim Sullivan,
the Mustangs' head manager. His 12-year-old son, Jake, plays first base and
pitches for the Mustangs. "Everybody [on the team] had the same situation."
In addition, Sullivan said, he had some found gloves left on the field
from time to time without a clue as to whose they were.
So this spring the Mustangs collected 13 bats, 16 new baseballs, a dozen
gloves, catcher's gear, a couple of batting helmets, two pairs of cleats, 18
equipment bags and some glove-conditioning oil, and sent it off to Ireland.
"It cost us $250 in postal fees," Dilegge said. "The parents chipped in."
All together, it was almost enough gear to equip both the Eagles and a
new team forming in neighboring Portrush. As a token of their appreciation,
the Portrush team has taken the name "Mustangs" in honor of the Virginia
team.
Powers is grateful for the support provided by the Virginia team.
"Not only have they provided equipment, they have also provided moral
support to us as we have developed," Powers wrote.
