The Lincoln 10U Girls All-Star team is organizing the Girls Just Wanna Play Ball 5K to cover costs associated with the trip to state.
Head coach Jeff Chappell said the goal is to not put any financial strain on the girls’ families.
“You know, some families it’s not that big a deal to go, but it might be for others,” Chappell said. “Nobody has said anything to me about it, but we don’t want to burden anyone.”
Chappell said the idea for a 5K started as a joke, but quickly took off.
“We were walking off the field one day and I said ‘Why don’t we do a 5K as a fundraiser?’” Chappell said. “I was just joking around, but Betsy Hopson runs in a lot of 5Ks and the next day she had a flier made, people contacted and we were already getting sponsors.”
The event, being held at Lincoln High School June 30, will start at the football field’s track and will cover much of the campus. The run will be contained to the school’s campus and every participant will receive a T-shirt from their entry fees.
Fees are $25 for pre-registered participants, $15 for student runners and $30 for on-site registration.
Interested runners may register for the 5K at active.com, or contact Jeff Chappell or Betsy Hopson. Pre-registration ends June 27.
Chappell said the goal is just to make the entire experience more enjoyable for the girls.
“They come out here and practice in 95-degree weather three or four times a week,” Chappell said. “If we have enough money left, we’d like to take them to a water park or get trophies made or something. All the money is going to be spent on the girls.”
Chappell said the response has been good so far. Many runners have expressed interest and the team has a few businesses lined up as sponsors.
“We said if we got 25 to run we wouldn’t be disappointed,” Chappell said. “We would love to hit the 100 mark. Betsy’s getting us 100 shirts printed up.”
The team went to state last year, as an 8U group and finished third. Chappell said he hopes to improve on that finish this time around.
“They’ve been looking forward to it since the beginning of the season,” Chappell said. “They get to go put their talents in front of a lot of people. We’ll be playing teams from all over the state.”
The All-Star team is made up of 12 players from the league’s two teams this year.
Chappell said the hardest part of his coaching is making the decision of who to put on the team.
“We picked what we judged as the 12 bet or the 12 hardest working girls who want to improve,” Chappell said. “I think it’s a good reward because some of them might not be the most skilled athletes, but they work hard and they try to get better.”
Chappell said he judges his coaching success by how well his girls play at the next level.
“You really don’t know how well you’ve done until you see some of them go on to play at Lincoln High,” Chappell said. “If they succeed and don’t have to be taught any fundamentals or anything like that, I’ll know I did a good job.”
