Pompano-Gibbons game to raise scholarship funds
The high school sports community in Broward County is taking steps in moving past the shooting that hit Marjory Stoneman Douglas on Feb. 14.
In Parkland, the Douglas baseball team will hit the field for its first game, hosting Cypress Bay at 3:45 p.m. at home on Friday. Meanwhile, at 6 p.m. in Pompano Beach, another game will serve as a fundraiser to kick start a scholarship foundation named for Chris Hixon, the Douglas athletic director who was one of the 17 killed that day. Sixteen others were injured.
With the district game between Pompano Beach and Cardinal Gibbons highlighted as the game of the week by High School Baseball Network, each team gets a representative to throw out a ceremonial first pitch.
Pompano coach Joe Giummule was close to Hixon after coaching baseball under him for six years while the two were together at South Broward High School. Knowing his widow, Debbie Hixon, was looking to start the Chris Hixon Athletic Scholarship Foundation, he thought it would be a good idea to reach out to her.
“I was over at his house and I asked his wife if she felt comfortable with her or her boys throwing out the first pitch and that I was going to send all proceeds of the event to the athletic scholarship foundation that she’s creating on his behalf,” Giummule said. “I needed someone to throw out the first pitch. I knew that she wanted to start this foundation, and this might help get the ball rolling.”
The plan for the fund is to provide one scholarship for a student at Blanche Ely, at South Broward and at Douglas — the three schools where Hixon was athletic director. Debbie Hixon and her son Corey Hixon will throw out the first pitches as the two returning playoff teams from District 14-5A square off at Four Fields Complex in Pompano. Last year, the Golden Tornadoes made it to state in Class 5A.
“Hopefully we’ll have a big crowd, and we’ll raise a lot of money for his foundation,” Giummule said.
“[Hixon] was just a very gracious person that put everybody first, especially kids. He never said no to anything. He was always good to me. He was supportive of anything that I did. He was what you want in an AD. And he was so much more than an AD — he was a friend.”
dfurones@sunsentinel.com, @DavidFurones_