OYC president Vince O'Neal was happy with the first tournament. "Who would've thought, five years ago, that we'd have baseball on Ocracoke?" he mused after the awards ceremony. It's not a rhetorical question – Ocracoke residents and OYC board members worked really hard to build this Field of Dreams. (Read about that process here.) "We're excited about hosting these tournaments," Vince said. "We're looking forward to bringing more baseball families here to enjoy our beautiful island and our new park."
Jeramy Guillory has been organizing the special events at the Community Park. He explained that the travel teams pay a registration fee, their parents pay admission to the games, and they also all stayed the weekend on the island.
The purpose of hosting a tournament is not just the joy of baseball, but also making money for the Community Park. Over the weekend, the Park sold over 200 admissions ($10 for the day or $15 for the whole weekend, free for kids), employed 6 residents for the weekend ("Bill and Shane were fantastic umpires."), and selling concessions. Each of the five teams brought about fifteen families to Ocracoke.
"One really cool thing that I didn't expect was that we brought so many people to the island who'd never been here before," Jeramy said. "Some parents told us that is was the best tournament they'd ever been to because of the unique experience for the kids: riding the ferry, biking around the island, going to shops and restaurants and having people ask about the games because they knew why the kids were here."
When he was a baseball parent in Virginia, Jeramy says he went to many a tournament in the middle of nowhere with only Burger King and Wal-mart as their dining and shopping options.
"These kids will never forget Ocracoke," he said. "The tournament will have a compounding effect. Now these families love the Ocracoke community and they'll return for vacation."
Seeing the experienced travel teams was a learning experience for Ocracoke's local ball players. The Rays have enjoyed being the Hatteras league's undefeated champs for years, and suffered their first defeat on Saturday morning.
"The Tidewater Bombers, which is one of the teams that was really good, showed up early to watch the first game, and they pulled for the Rays!" Jeramy said. "They were pulling for the Ocracoke team."
Some of these off-island kids were BIG. And they were all-boy teams. Ocracoke had the only co-ed team with Maren and Emilia representing girl power. In fact, Maren was the only Ray to make it to a base in their first game. (She was walked.) She also pitched a few innings!
"Our kids improved over the course of two days just from watching these other teams," Jeramy said. "Their baseball knowledge jumped. They learned so much."
I spoke to a Carolina Pirate mom who told me she loved having the chance to go to the beach between games. Ocracoke rolled out our best weather for the weekend, and made a great impression on the first-timers.
Besides the Pirates, Ocracoke hosted the Dare County All-Stars from Manteo, NC, the Outer Banks Riptides from Kitty Hawk, NC, the Tar River Cats from Rocky Mount, NC, and the Tidewater Bombers from Chesapeake, VA.
The Ocracoke Rays will play again on Saturday, June 3rd at the Community Park in a double-header in their regular Hatteras League against the Braves. Games are at Noon and 2pm.
There are several more events planned for the Community Park over the summer.
On Thursday, June 15th at 3pm, Ocracoke Community park will host a game between the Outer Banks Daredevils and the Greenbriar Knights; both teams are part of the Tidewater Summer League, which is a collegiate, wooden bat league. Ocracoke's own Eli Straw (he's the son of Ocracoke School's 4th grade teacher, Ms Jeanie) is playing for the Outer Banks Daredevils! Come out and watch some serious baseball on Ocracoke.
On June 17th–18th (Father's Day weekend), Ocracoke will host a tournament for age 10-and-under. On July 15th–16th, there will be another tournament for both 10-and-under teams and 13-and-under teams.
Leaving baseball behind, the Park will move into soccer season. Steve Smalley, an Outer Banks soccer coach, will visit Ocracoke and hold a 3-day soccer camp for boys and girls of all ages on July 26th–28th. Ocracoke Youth Center will kick-off a youth soccer program in August.
On Monday, July 30th, come out to the Park for the Toureos Quadrago, a 4-team, coed soccer tournament that Eduardo Chavez (yes, he's that Eduardo) is co-organizing with Jeramy.
The OYC board has big plans for the future of the Community Park, including nature trails, an activity center, storage for their teams, and real bathrooms. They are seeking grants to help fund some of their ideas. "We want to sustain the Park and keep it afloat," Vince told me earlier this spring. "Five years into this project, it's time to take it to the next level."