CREEKS BASEBALL CLUB rolled into year 21 with nearly 2,000 players, families, fans and spectators! On Saturday, January 28th the sun was shining on Rivertown as all 19 teams played against teams in their CBC age division to kick off Opening Day at Rivertown. Other than the highlight of watching great baseball games, Rivertown’s Stadium field came alive with our historic and extremely moving Opening Day ceremony as each player from 7U through 14U ran across home plate as their names were announced and each player was introduced into the CBC Spring 2023 season before a roaring crowd of Riverhawk fans! As is tradition, the Tom Kehoe Award was presented to a distinguished member of the CBC family. This year’s Tom Kehoe Award recipient was United States Navy E-9 Master Chief, Josh Bouge who has spent countless hours and a tireless amount of energy updating and improving Rivertown fields. Creeks Baseball Club and our entire community salute Master Chief Bouge not only for his volunteerism at CBC but also for his service to our country!
Creeks Baseball Club President, David Yarbrough had the distinct honor of also introducing CBC’s impressive coaches roster which includes several of our area’s High School Baseball staff: Creekside High School Athletic Director – Luke Marabell, Bartram Trail High School Head Baseball Coach – Ryan Fitzpatrick, Beachside High School Head Baseball Coach – Jason “Smitty” Smith, along with other assistant High School Coaches Creekside High School: Darren Lester, Chris Angelou, Taylor Westbrook, Bartram Trail High School: Grant Bigilin and Will Gunsaulus and Beachside High School: Erik Figueroa.
Our ceremony also included a special presentation by CBC’s Director of Baseball, Coach Reed Melcolm who recognized several of our alumni who are graduating seniors: Bobby Goodrich, Drew Herbst, Kellen Brown, Brody DeLamielleure, Logan Duprey, Nolan Hartsell, Alex Calabro, Ezra Shields, Connor Cronin, Jack Newman and JD Hay. Several of these boys will be playing at the collegiate level and their names are being added to the Creeks Baseball Club Wall of Fame. But most importantly, all of these young men were also recognized for outstanding GPAs proving that being a Riverhawk means excelling in sports, character and academics. These young men are excellent examples to our CBC players and we wish them well as they head off to college in the fall.
CBC’s Vice President, Maria Chrissovergis recognized the park’s sponsors who have generously donated money to help with field improvements. CBC has many generous donors who are helping our athletes play this great sport they love. The entire CBC family would like to especially thank XTREME WINGS and DUVAL MOTORS for their park sponsorship! There are exciting and BIG plans for Rivertown and their generosity is helping us get there.
Finally, to catapult this tremendous all-American event, our country’s National Anthem was performed by Nashville recording artists and country music band, Chris James which included a firework display. The first pitch was thrown out by Action Sports Jax Sports Director Brent Martineau, Band Member and former travel baseball player Chris James band member, and CBC’s founder Tom Reber. The ceremony concluded with Coach Reber sharing an inspirational message to CBC’s athletes which included words that will carry these boys through their Spring 2023 season and beyond!
