The Kiwanis Club of Staunton was founded in November 1922. Since that time, the Club has devoted its energy and resources toward improving the lives of the children of our community. Kiwanis has been associated with youth baseball in Staunton since 1945 when four civic clubs, Kiwanis, Lions, Rotary and Young Men’s Civic Club founded the original youth baseball program. In 1946, the Kiwanis Club of Staunton assumed the responsibility for the program, which it has operated successfully since that time. It is estimated that nearly 25,000 kids have played on Kiwanis baseball teams.
In the beginning, just after the end of World War II, the program was designed for kids ages 13 to 15. Games were played at the fairgrounds ball park located on the site of what is now Moxie Stadium, current home of the Staunton Braves. Initially, teams represented various sections of the city such as Selma, West End, and Sears Hill. Players on the teams lived in the sections they represented, and the teams sported names like the Termites and Woodpeckers. Games were played during the months of June, July, and August.
Eddie Bryant, the football coach at Staunton Military Academy, was Kiwanis Baseball’s first program director. He was instructed to teach the participants sportsmanship, along with the rudiments of baseball, and to enforce the Club’s rules of “No Smoking, No Chewing, No Profane Language, and No Destruction of Property.”
From its inception until 1984, Kiwanis operated its program as an independent league. In 1984, the program affiliated itself with the national Babe Ruth Baseball program, an affiliation that continues to the present day. The current program operates as a Spring program, starting in February and concluding at the end of the school year. Presently, the program serves children ages 4 through 12. The program has a no-cut policy where all players play while the Kiwanis Club absorbs most of the expenses of running the program. The City of Staunton works as a reliable and faithful partner of the Kiwanis Club in the operation of the program.
Present day games are played in Gypsy Hill Park at the Kiwanis Baseball Complex, a site that has been built and improved over the years thanks to the combined efforts of the City and the Kiwanis Club. The first improvements took place in the late 1970s with the creation of Kiwanis Field. Nearly $50,000 was raised by the Club and spent providing a lighted field, brick dugouts, a two-story brick press box and storage area, plus separate concession and rest room facilities.
In the mid-1990’s, the Kiwanis Club launched another major renovation project, which included raising funds to allow the City to build a new softball field in Montgomery Hall Park, and to add two additional fields to the youth baseball complex in Gypsy Hill Park. The addition of the softball field in Montgomery Hall Park, allowed the Department of Recreation and Parks to move all adult softball programs out of Gypsy Hill Park, reserving that area for youth baseball.
The largest of the new youth baseball fields was named the Jerry May Field in honor of local resident Jerry May, Kiwanis Baseball’s first alumnus to play Major League Baseball, who was killed in a tragic accident. Jerry’s friends contributed substantially to the fundraising effort. The smaller of the two fields was named the Bosserman Field in honor of the contributions of Ken Bosserman, the longtime program director, and his parents, who served the program so well in a variety of roles over many years.
The fundraising effort, part of which involved Kiwanis Club members selling coverlets featuring images of Staunton landmarks, raised more than $60,000.00 and permitted the construction of the two fields, along with fencing, bench areas, a two-story press box and storage area, a concession stand, as well as scoreboards and lighting for both fields.
In the early part of the current century, the Kiwanis Club has provided funds for upgrading the dugouts at the May and Bosserman Fields, for improvements to the playing surfaces of all the fields, and for improvements to the fencing and scoreboards. In 2018, the Kiwanis Club completed its latest improvement project with the upgrading of the concession stand at Kiwanis Field, doubling the size of that structure while creating a more efficient and modern space in which to prepare and sell the estimated 10,000 hotdogs purchased by patrons each season. All funds for the project came from the baseball fund of the Kiwanis Foundation of Staunton.
Over the years, Kiwanis Baseball has developed the reputation as a quality youth baseball program. Kiwanis teams won Babe Ruth Baseball district, state and southeast regional tournament championships in 1984 and 1986, sending a team to the Babe Ruth 12-and-under World Series in those years, and finishing third each time. From 1984 through 1992, Kiwanis Baseball all-star teams won Babe Ruth state titles in one division or another over a span of nine consecutive years.
The quality of the Kiwanis Baseball Program was recognized by Babe Ruth Baseball, when that organization decided to play its Babe Ruth/Cal Ripken 2006 10-and-under Southeastern Regional Tournament, and its 2009 and 2014 Babe Ruth/Cal Ripken 12-and-under Southeastern Reginal Tournaments, last step before the Babe Ruth World Series, at the Kiwanis Baseball Complex in Gypsy Hill. These tournaments proved to be hugely successful, drawing praise from many sources, and providing a large financial boost to the Kiwanis Baseball operation.
While proud of the history of success of its summer tournament teams, the primary emphasis of the Kiwanis Baseball Program has always been on the kids who participate in the local program in the spring season. Just as Eddie Bryant did in 1946, the program continues to stress sportsmanship, while teaching the rudiments of baseball. The Club makes available an extensive array of training opportunities and resources to coaches and volunteers in an effort to ensure that the players can develop baseball skills, while having a good time playing the game. The Kiwanis Club attempts to provide maximum playing time for all players by keeping league rosters small, and requiring that each player on a roster must play at least half each game.
In 2022, Kiwanis Baseball provided family fun for over 247 kids, ages 4 through 12, on 19 teams in five separate leagues or divisions, including tee ball, where the players hit using a tee, coach pitch where coaches pitch to players, rookie, where the players hit using a pitching machine, plus junior (minor) and bambino (major), where the kids pitch and hit as in regular baseball. Tee ball was first offered by Kiwanis Baseball in the late 1980s. The tee ball division is designed for 4-5 year-old players and was added to the Kiwanis Baseball Program in 2002.
In 2022 Kiwanis International named Staunton Kiwanis Baseball one of the 10 best signature projects worldwide!
The yearly cost of the program is approximately $80.00 per player. Those costs are covered through players registration fees, sponsorship fees, concession stand revenues, and the fundraising efforts of the Staunton Kiwanis Club.
The Kiwanis Club of Staunton, along with its baseball program partner, the City of Staunton Department of Recreation and Parks, is proud of the youth baseball tradition established over the last 70+ years, and looks forward to continuing that tradition for the current and future generations of Staunton kids.