Washington County Enterprise-Leader
Community invests in Lady Wolves’ softball program
LINCOLN — The greatest resource of any community shows up when its people get mobilized and engage in a project for the common good.
With basketball season in the rear view mirror, Lincoln fans turned their attention to spring sports. At least 30 community members participated in a volunteer work day that involved construction of two new dugouts at the Lady Wolves’ softball field on Saturday, Feb. 18.
That turnout reflects the type of community investment in its youth which sums up the feelings of Lincoln athletic director Deon Birkes’ desire to raise his family within his hometown. Coming out of college, he went elsewhere working in places such as Texas and Springdale before returning to Lincoln as a basketball coach and administrator. He’s been out of coaching for a few years now, yet remains actively involved in promoting the athletic programs.
“That’s the reason I wanted to come home is because of the community like this. They always come out, [even] on a cold day and do it for the kids. That’s the biggest thing. We want our kids to have beautiful, great things and imagine that — when you treat kids like they’re important, they act like they’re important so we just got a great community that comes out here and supports our kids,” Birkes said.
A FAMILY AFFAIR
Entire families came out. Dads, moms, sons and daughters cleaned concessions, picked up trash, dug post holes and labored to build new dugouts. A core group of 15 remained late into the afternoon working hard on the dugouts undaunted by cold, blustery weather, tirelessly taking on the softball project trying to get the dugouts done before the end of the day.
“We’ve got multiple generations who graduated a long time ago and some who haven’t graduated from Lincoln but who have kids here. But once you come here, you become family,” Birkes said. “It’s just one big family affair, kind of like the ol’ barn raising. We came here and we’re going to get it done. We’re going to get it built so our kids can enjoy something beautiful and then when we have the [Class 3A] State tournament here we’ll have people coming and know how important our kids are to us and it just grows our community.”
Freshman first baseman/ pitcher Morgan Rice echoed Birkes’ sentiment in a separate interview. Asked what she treasures about the community, Rice said, “That we’re kind of like a family.”
FRESHMEN EXCITEMENT
Another dad, Dax Moreton (Lincoln Class of 1995), father of All-State pitcher Brinkley Moreton, headed up the project. Birkes noted contributions came from a broad spectrum of the community.
“Latco donated a big portion of materials to the project and then we’ve got Ozark Ag, they donated stuff to us and then you’ve got community members who jumped in there and they get whatever we need at that moment. Sometimes out of their own pocket and sometimes we use a little bit of school funds, but that’s what we do. We’re a community; we take a little bit from everybody and make something great for all of us,” Birkes said.
Morgan Rice and classmate River Remington, who plays shortstop and center field, were accompanied by their fathers, Shane Rice and Roger Remington.
“I want to thank every one of them [including] my dad, and her dad,” Morgan Rice said.
River Remington could hardly contain her excitement about improvements that make the facility a lot nicer and enhance the softball program with the state tournament coming up
“I’m so excited. I was actually going to talk about that. Pull some energy and hopefully we can take home the state championship,” Remington said.
FIGHT FOR ROSTER SPOTS
Freshman Delysia Martinez, who alternates between shortstop and second base, celebrated engaging alongside her parents, Rumeo and Tasha Martinez, her coaches and everybody else who threw themselves into the project.
Like Rice and Remington, she’s grown up in the Lincoln softball program.
She rejoiced bearing witness to all the community support.
“It makes me feel very happy because people can take their own time on an off-day to help us,” Delysia said.
Everybody knows Brinkley Moreton can throw heat and she can swing the bat. Delysia described her feeling as a freshman with an opportunity to get on the softball field with a player of Brinkley’s caliber.
“I really like softball but I am so excited and I really hope that I’m able to be on the field when Brinkley’s pitching. We’re all excited about softball season,” Delysia said.
Tryouts have been under way. The freshman class is giving the upper classmen all that they can handle because they want a spot on the varsity roster.
“We don’t know what place we’re going to be in yet but during practice we’re working to earn those spots,” River Remington said. “We’re definitely giving them a challenge for sure.”
With the new facelift on the field and dugouts, the freshman class stands to benefit from it the most because their class will play four seasons there.
BUSY SPRING UPCOMING
After hosting the District 3A-1 baseball and softball tournaments, the Lincoln fields take a week off from baseball and softball with the focus shifting to the high school campus for the Class 1A State track and field meet with the Class 3A State baseball and softball tournaments coming to Lincoln the next week.
As athletic director, Birkes’ plate could be full managing all of those events but he’s drawing from a pool of community involvement.
“My job is the easy one. We’ve got a lot of volunteers, a lot of coaches who take care of a lot of stuff and even our FFA takes care of the hospitality room,” Birkes said.
“Again it’s a community effort, all part of one big family. That’s kind of the reason we came back home. This is home and we’re all part of the Lincoln family.”