Stars serious about softball

The players for the Topeka Stars’ Special Olympics men’s softball team have never backed away from a challenge, either in life or sports.

And although the Stars are looking forward to having a good time in this week's Special Olympics North America Softball Championships in Nashville, Tenn., they also consider this a work trip.

The Stars, made up of men ages 18 to 40 from Topeka, Emporia and Council Grove, will leave for Nashville on Thursday morning and compete Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The team will be looking for a second straight championship in the event, which draws teams from across the United States and Canada.

The Stars won the tournament in 2017, the last time it was contested, and retain a solid nucleus from the team that Topekan Allan Henderson has coached for five years.

“We might have one or two added or fall off, but by and large it’s the same guys," Henderson said. “They’re going back to defend their championship."

Henderson, who has been involved with the Special Olympics for 14 years, said the North American Championships are a big highlight of the year for the Stars, who also compete regularly in a Wednesday night city softball league.

“The team that I have has played city league, at the lowest level, the last five years, so by Special Olympics standards we’re very high level," Henderson said.

“Part of our mission as far as playing softball is to emphasize that just because you have a disability doesn’t mean you’re disabled. Getting out there and proving it on the field is pretty important to these guys."

Stars assistant coach Ed Lee said the team is definitely looking forward to this week's competition.

"This is what we practice for," Lee said. "This is what we do city men's league for, to practice, because there's not too many teams in this area that will play at the level that we do in Special Olympics."

Several individuals and organizations have made donations to help fund the Stars' trip to Nashville. Smash It Sports provided new bags for the team while Got 1's 6 provided jerseys. The Stars also received monetary donations from Custom Sheet Metal and Reser's.

Henderson said the Stars don’t always win, particularly in city league competition, but he said that is always the goal.

“Absolutely, they are very competitive," Henderson said of his team. “(City league) gives them an opportunity to play teams at their level and above. They’d rather lose a challenging game than blow another team out."

Lee said the Stars weren't exactly welcomed with open arms by some teams when they began city league competition five years ago, but he thinks the team has now earned the respect of other teams they play.

"We usually win a game or two each year, but it's to the point now that teams love having us in the league," said Lee, who has been involved with Special Olympics for more than 20 years. "They just love playing us because it's nothing but having fun and playing ball. The guys are good-spirited, they're good players and it's just a good, fun game.

"It's been a great evolution. This year we had a couple of times where we had teams come over and said, 'Hey, we're short players. Can one of your guys come over and play with us.' It's getting to that kind of rapport."

The Stars take everything they do seriously, but coaches also make sure the team has fun, including adding nicknames for all the players in recent years.

"We started that a couple of years ago," Lee said. "They were too tense and stressed and we got shellacked by a Virginia team. The floodgates opened and we couldn't have thrown anybody out to save our lives, so to try to pick them up we gave them all nicknames. It was just something to have fun with."

As a result, the roster of players who will compete in Nashville includes names like Marcus "You're Killing Me Smalls" Clements, Shannon "Junk Yard Dog" Hardin, Justin "Baby Sasquatch" White, Jordan "Cookie Monster" Eubanks and Houston "We Have a Problem" Robinson.

For the families involved, working with the Stars is a labor of love.

"I get a lot more out of this than I could ever put into it," Allan Henderson told his team before Monday's practice at Washburn Rural's softball complex.

His wife, Cathy, who handles a variety of organizational duties with the team, agreed.

"It's a way of life," she said. "This has truly become a lifestyle for us and you get to hang out with the best people in the world."

TOPEKA STARS ROSTER

Marcus Clements, Topeka; Jordan Eubanks, Topeka; Shannon Hardin, Emporia; Tyler Hutton, Topeka; Shawn McWilliams, Topeka; Rhino Pracht, Council Grove; Beau Renyer, Topeka; Adam Rice, Emporia; Harley Rich, Topeka; Houston Robinson, Emporia; Rodnel Turner, Topeka; Jesse Watts, Topeka; Justin White, Topeka.

Coaches — Allan Henderson, Ed Lee, Monty King, Krista Martin, Brandon Hatfield.

Ballboy — David Schuman.

Batgirl — Bekah Henderson.