Rain and storms forecast for July 16 caused event organizers to move the event to July 19.

Browns alumni and Lorain High football coaches will offer instruction on football in a high-energy event for children ages 8 to 14. No prior football experience is required. Registration on July 19 starts at 10 a.m. at George Daniel Field.

The camp will run from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. For more information contact Lorain High football coach Damion Creel at dcreel@loraincsd.org.

The Crushers open a three-game series with Schaumburg at Mercy Health Field at 7:05 p.m. on July 16. First place in the division will be on the line. The teams were tied for first at the start of action on the July 15 with identical 23-20 records.

The Crushers have won six of their last 10 and split a doubleheader with Gateway on July 14, winning the opener 9-5 and losing the nightcap, 3-2.

Crushers manager Dan Rohn said the team is still trying to find its groove.

“We’re still trying to tinker and add and subtract and do what we can do to get us over the hump. It’s still really early. I don’t really look at the record,” said Rohn.

The one reason the Crushers have been winning has been the hitting of outfielder, Issac Benard. He leads the Frontier League in hitting with a .356 average.

“He’s just a good hitter,” said Rohn. “He’s a proven professional hitter.”

Bernard was drafted by Tampa Bay in 2016. This year for the Crushers, he’s hit three home runs and driven in 17, while scoring 25 runs.

His strong showing with the Crushers could land him a job with a Major League organization, said Rohn.

“I fear we are going to lose him in the next couple of weeks after the draft,” Rohn said.

Benard was taken in the late rounds of the 2016 draft by Tampa Bay. He is the son of former Major Leaguer Marvin Benard, who played for nine years with the San Francisco Giants in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Second baseman Trevor Achenbach has also been on a tear. He is hitting .318 with a team-high seven home runs and 31 RBI. Achenbach, Benard and third baseman Javier Betancourt have all three been on fire over the past seven days.

Achenbach hit .520 over the span with three home runs and 14 RBI in 25 at-bats. Betancourt is hitting .533 in the same time frame and Benard .519.

Lake Erie as a team has hit .314 over its past six games.

And the Crushers continue to be one of the top pitching teams in the Frontier League. They are fourth in pitching with a team ERA of 3.86.

Ryan Feierabend continues to grind on the hill for the Crushers. He was scheduled to start the July 15 game but was rained out. The Midview grad and former major leaguer is 3-2 on the season with 4.31 ERA. He’s struck out 35 in 39 2/3 innings.

“The record doesn’t mean anything,” Rohn said in regards to Feierabend, a left-hander who is hoping to make it back to the big leagues. “It’s how he throws and how he gets people out. He’s a left-handed finesse guy who uses control and stability to make people chase,” said Rohn.

What’s next: The Crushers host Schaumberg in a three-game series starting on July 16 at 7:05 p.m.; July 17 at 6:05 p.m. and July 18 at 2:05 p.m.

Evan Shawver got the call so many dream of.

Shawver, a left-handed pitcher who starred at Amherst High before taking his talents to the University of Cincinnati, was drafted in the seventh round of the MLB Draft by the Colorado Rockies on July 12.

The 6-foot, 185-pounder was taken by the Rockies with the 200th overall pick.

He is the fourth Amherst graduate to be drafted by a Major League team since 2007. He joins Antone DeJesus (2007, Cardinals), Ryan Rua (2011, Rangers) and Xavier Moore (2017, Rangers).

Shawver was in Las Vegas with his father Rick and some other friends watching the draft at a sports book when he learned he was drafted, according to his high school coach Matt Rositano, who is still in close contact with his former star pitcher.

“You are so unbelievably happy for the kid because he’s one of the nicest human beings you’ll meet. He’s an extremely hard worker. Just to see him realize his dreams by seeing and hearing his name called in the MLB Draft, you’re so ecstatic for him,” said Rositano.

Shawver has steadily developed since graduating from high school. He was throwing 91-93 as a high school senior. By this summer, he was topping out at 97 mph, according to Rositano.

The 21-year-old Shawver, a 2018 Amherst graduate, played varsity baseball all four years for the Comets and also played three years of football. He practiced one day with the freshmen team before Rositano moved him and another freshman (Hunter Cassidy) up to the varsity, Rositano said.

Shawver hit the ground running as a ninth grader. In his first varsity start, he struck out 15 in a complete-game win over Midview, giving a hint of what was to come. “I had a scout tell me after watching him as freshman that he would be draftable,” Rositano said. Shawver capped his freshman year by winning a tournament game.

By his junior year, Shawver was second team All-Ohio. His senior year, he was almost unhittable, as he struck 122 batters in 61 innings with an ERA of 0.11 and earned the 2018 Division I Ohio High School Baseball Coaches Association Player of the Year award. He was also named Mr. Baseball in Lorain County.

From there, it was off to Cincinnati, where he got bigger and stronger and began to throw harder.

He struggled as a freshman as evidenced by his 5.95 ERA, but struck out 69 batters in 61 innings.

Shawver’s sophomore year was cut short by COVID-19, but was impressive none the less as he recorded a 1.59 ERA in four appearances, striking out 35 in 22 2/3 innings.

During the COVID-19 shutdown Shawver returned home, and worked out at T3 Performance in Avon where he developed what he called a “’power changeup,” giving him a three-pitch arsenal when combined with his fastball and curve. It was there he also incorporated strength training into his workout routine concentrating on his lower half and abdominals. The added strength allowed him to add velocity to go along with what scouts say is great movement on his pitches.

“I’m not going to blow 105 past somebody,” Shawver said in an interview with Prospect Live prior to the 2021 season. “I just try to miss bats.”

He did that pretty effectively this spring at Cincinnati. He went 3-1 with a 2.72 ERA and struck out 49 in 46 1/3 innings.

He boosted his stock this summer with a strong performance in the Cape Cod League, which is considered one of the top college summer leagues in the country. In two starts for Norwich, he didn’t allow an earned run and struck out 22 batters in 12 innings.

“He’s a wonderful kid,” Rositano said. “He’s so unbelievably nice, sincere and genuine. Those are the kinds of kids you root for to succeed. To see him have the chance to play professionally and possibly move up and make it to the majors is just so exciting.”

The start of practice for the 2021 high school football season is still three weeks away, but 10 teams from Northeast Ohio continued offseason preparations at the Build the Bridge 7-on-7 on July 10 at George Daniel Field.

Lorain hosted the event that included Cleveland Heights, Westlake, Cleveland Central Catholic, Canton McKinley, Benedictine and several Akron schools.

There is no tackling in the games. Teams use their skill players on offense and linebackers and defensive backs on defense. Sweet grabs along the sideline, diving catches across the middle and spectacular pass breakups by defensive backs ruled the day.

Build a Bridge is a program started by several Black Northeast Ohio football coaches, including Lorain coach Damion Creel, with a mission of using football to help bridge cultural and racial divisions. It started during the the spring of 2020 in response to the racial turmoil in the country following the murder of George Floyd by then-Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin.

Teams played five games. The game were played with a 25-minute running clock and game officials were used.

Prior to the games, former Lorain coach Dave McFarland spoke to the players. McFarland, who coached Lorain into a playoff team before retiring in after 2019, told the players to be the difference in making society a better place.

“Be part of the the solution and build relationships,” McFarland told the players.

McFarland told the players his decision to come to Lorain to help out a struggling football program in a city struggling with myriad social problems opened him up to relationships that he treasures.

“You build relationships and it transformed my life, I think this is the greatest experience of my life, coming to Lorain,” said McFarland, who played and coached at Elyria Catholic and also coached at Oberlin, Berea and Midpark. 

McFarland said he’s so excited with the job Creel is doing in creating positive energy around the football program that he will coach the Lorain freshman team this fall.

Blocking and tackling

The Lorain squad continues to improve under Creel, who is making it a point to create new culture around the program, one that preaches doing things right and personal responsibility.

During one scrimmage he dressed down a defensive back who made an interception, but then try to cruise and style when returning the pick.

“Run the ball back like it’s a game,” Creel shouted at the player.

“That’s the standard. You get an interception in the game and that effort isn’t going to be good enough,” Creel said when asked about the play. “We want to create great habits. And that’s what we are fighting against. They have nobody at home that’s imposing them with great habits.”

Sophomore quarterback Joseph Wyatt continues to develop. During a scrimmage against Sandusky, he threw several nice balls while on the run. One of his most impressive throws came on two-point conversion when he to his right and fired a bullet to the corner of the end zone to Xavier Smith.

Creel has been working all spring and summer developing Wyatt, who has never played quarterback in organized football prior to now.

“He looked good. He’s looking more comfortable. He’s a lot better now than he was, but he’s got to keep going,” Creel said.

Countdown to the season

Lorain’s been practicing three days a week during the summer and on some Saturdays. Unlike some schools, Lorain does not have a digital clock in its locker room counting down the time until practice or the season starts.

“We don’t have a clock,” Creel said. “We are five weeks in. We’ve got eight weeks for the summer. Next week will be Week 6. We are taking it day-by-day and not looking too far ahead.”

Lorain opens its season with road games at Olmsted Falls and Sandusky.

Lorain and Sandusky played on July 10 with Lorain winning, 20-13, in a game that Wyatt threw for three scores.

Sandusky coach Mike Franklin and Creel had talked about their schools having a 7-on-7 at first, before Creel decided to add teams.

“Coach Creel did a great job,” Franklin said. “We had talked about getting together, and he grew it into something better than I imagined. Can’t say enough about the event. The kids are well behaved. Well-organized. I hope these kids are out here learning some good lessons.”

Cleveland Heights junior running back Owen Bisker backs the central message of Build the Bridge.

“I think it’s great,” said Bisker, who was a Division I second-team All Northeast District pick in 2020 as a sophomore. “With everything going on right now for everyone to come together through one thing, which is football, I think that’s a great idea. I’ve been seeing that all day. I’ve been seeing other teams talk to each other. I think we are taking a step in the right direction with this.”

After a relatively short career in the big leagues, Rua is back in the area passing on the lessons he learned that helped him make it to the major leagues to a new generation of young ballplayers.

Rua – who has not played in the major leagues for three seasons, but has yet to officially retire – works as a hitting instructor T3 Performance in Avon and helps manage a local summer team sponsored by the training facility made up of some of the best high school players in the area.

Rua has the crew winning. As of this week, T3 Rua’s Elite 17-and-under team has a 23-5-2 record this summer and during the July 4 weekend won the 17-U title at Cedar Point with a 6-0-1 record. This weekend, the team heads to Columbus to play in the Buckeye Elite Showcase Tournament.

Some of the team members include Elyria Catholic all-state outfielder Alex Carandang, Avon all-district shortstop and Toledo recruit Troy Sudbrook and Amherst pitcher/infielder Cam Gendics.

Rua, 31, who was taken in the 17th round of the 2011 MLB Draft by Texas, stresses to younger players to take a “big picture” approach to baseball and not get caught up in individual at-bats or plays.

“We really differentiate ourself on how we play the game,” Rua said. “We may not be the most talented team out there, but we play the game right.”

The T3 roster is sprinkled with some of the top young talent in the the county. Carandang is hitting .418 with 25 RBI and 32 runs scored. Sudbrook is hitting .370 and has scored 44 runs and drawn 27 walks, while Gendics is 6-0 with 63 strikeouts in just 37 1/3 innings with a 1.31 ERA.

Players on T3 can use Rua’s career as a blueprint for what they might be able to achieve in the sport. Rua was a two-sport athlete in high school, playing basketball and baseball. He was an all-conference guard in basketball his senior year and an all-state selection in baseball at Amherst.

But the pro and college scouts weren’t exactly beating down his doors with offers for the next level, so he opted for Division II Lake Erie College in Painesville.

It was there that Rua grew physically and mentally and developed a love for working out, which ultimately helped him reach the highest levels of baseball.

“There wasn’t a lot to do in Painesville,” Rua said of the town he went to college. ”It was either school, working out, or in the cages.

“I don’t want to say I lacked the work ethic in high school in the weight room, but I didn’t enjoy it like I did in college and and the pros. I loved to do the baseball stuff. But I was able to grasp that love for the weight room and to push myself and that made me a better player and person.”

Rua hit 11 home runs as freshman at Lake Erie College as he got stronger and his sophomore year hit. 400 and bashed another 11 home runs.

That performance earned him an invite to a collegiate wood-bat summer league in Cincinnati, where he ended up winning the league MVP and landing on the radar of major-league scouts. He also grew from 185 pounds to 205 pounds of solid muscle during that time.

He was taken in 17th round by Texas and quickly made his way up the major-league ladder.

By 2014, he made his major-league debut, and on Sept. 14 of that year hit his first big-league home run. It was a solo shot in the top of the ninth inning off of the Angles’ Huston Street that drove in what turned out to be the game-winning RBI.

Rua’s best year in the major leagues was the 2016 campaign. That year he made the team out of spring training and hit .258 in 99 games with eight home runs and 22 RBI. He bounced up and down from the minors to the majors in 2017 and 2018 before opting for free agency.

There was some interest from teams in signing Rua, but based on his years of big-league experience he had ultimately become too expensive for major-league teams to afford, when they could just bring up a younger player from the minors and pay them less.

For his career, Rua has a .238 batting average, 23 home runs and 67 RBI in 696 at-bats.

“A lot of teams are calling up prospects and paying them minimum wage,” Rua said.

He doesn’t regret his decision to step away from playing. The time away has allowed his body to heal up from some injuries that had been plaguing him and spend time with his young family, which includes his wife, Courtney, and 4-year-old son Rowan and 2-year-old daughter Avery.

“It’s a blessing in disguise,” Rua said. “My body was taking a pounding and I was away from my family. I get to see them everyday now and my body feels better. I’m real happy where I’m at.”

The young players at T3 are just as happy to have an ex-big leaguer coaching them up.

“They hang on his every word,” said Jeff Sudbrook, who is Troy’s father and assists the 17-U team and is the general manager at T3.

Rua takes a personal interest in the players and their development, said Sudbrook, and wants to help them become better players and people.

T3 has brought in major leaguers to help train players in the past, Sudbrook said, and it hasn’t always been the most positive of experiences.

“Some of them were pretty lazy, to be quite honest,” Sudbrook said. “They’d sit on a bucket and flip a kid a ball. I’ve coached for years and I’ve never seen anyone with his (Rua’s) background get so involved, just because he loves it.”

Rua said his goal in baseball when coming up through high school was to play at as high a level competition as he could.

“I was trying to get as far as I could or as far as my ability would take me,” he said. “Pro ball stuff started to come into play as my body developed and my tools started developing even more.”

Many of the T3 players are better “prospects” than Rua was at the same stage in his career, he admits. So it will be interesting to see if a Carandang, Sudbrook or Gendics can take their baseball careers as far as Rua’s.

“There are kids on our team who are way more talented than I was at that stage from a physical and mental standpoints,” he said. “A lot of guys are really taking advantage of what we offer at T3 in the weight room and on the mental side of stuff.”

Jeff Sudbrook points out because Rua wasn’t a hotshot prospect in high school, it helps him connect with the players he now coaches.

“He’s a perfect fit. He wasn’t Bryce Harper or Mike Trout who were destined. He did it through hard work and his love for the game,” he said.

As for Rua, he doesn’t have any plans of returning to pro baseball. He’s had offers to play for teams, such as the Crushers, but for now is content to coach and work an work at T3.

T3 is in the process of merging with the Lake Erie Warhawks – the area’s other travel baseball program. Rua will have a big role in the new organization that will ultimately service as many as 600 players.

“Our main goal is to continue to develop these kids and put as many kids in college as we can,” Rua said. “It doesn’t necessarily mean (Division I) schools, but the school that fits your talent level.”

Earlier this month, the NCAA opted to suspend amateurism rules when it came to athletes profiting from their name, image and likeness Under the new rules, the starting quarterback at Ohio State (as an example) can now make deal with a local dealer to receive a car in exchange for endorsing the dealer.

That same quarterback can also go to an autograph show and be paid for his autograph; or be paid for singing the praises of a local pizza chain. Prior to new rules, such an business transaction involving an NCAA athlete would have been a violation.

Clearly, some athletes are reaping the benefits of the new landscape already, specifically those athletes with strong followings on social media.

The basketball playing Cavinder twins (Hanna and Haley) from Fresno State inked lucrative deals to endorse Boost Mobile and a nutritional supplement, according to Fox News. University of Iowa basketball player Jordan Bohannon did a deal with fireworks company, according to various media reports.

A key to a player making money is their presence on social media. The more followers an athlete has on social media the more valuable they are in this era of “influencers.”

The Cavinder twins, for example, have a combined total of 4 million followers on TikTok and Instagram.

Izzy Geraci, a North Ridgeville graduate, and senior guard on the Cleveland State woman’s basketball team, is trying to get her piece of the pie.

Geraci has around nearly 8,000 followers on Twitter (@izzygeraci); 17,700 on Instagram (izzygeraci7), and 60,000 on TikTok.

Geraci said she posts about her life and basketball via her social media.“It’s like a journey through pictures.”

Her first move after the change in the NIL rules went into effect on July 1, was to become a Barstool Athlete. She signed up with social media giant after DM’ing with its founder David Portnoy.

“I asked him did they have any opportunities and he said was more than glad to have me join,” said Geraci. “It was pretty exciting”

Geraci will not be paid by Barstool, she said. According to an Instagram post from Portnoy, Barstool Athletes instead will be given “exclusive” Barstool Athlete merchandise that is not available to the public.

Geraci, who averaged 3.1 points and 2.1 rebounds a game as junior at CSU, won’t have to do much, in return.

“I’ll probably have to post about it and they wanted us to put that we are Barstool athletes into our (social media) bios, but they aren’t really having us do anything,” said Geraci.

According to Geraci, Cleveland State officials met with members of the women’s basketball team to go over NIL rule change just before it went into effect.

“They went over rules of what we can and can’t do. You aren’t allowed to wear your school stuff when you are doing promotional stuff. You can’t use your school facilities unless you pay for it. It’s basically your brand. You can’t use your school as an assist,” Geraci said.

Geraci said she has yet to be approached for a deal like the one the Cavinders inked, but said she has garnered some interest.

“I’ve had clothing companies reach out about wearing shirts around. But nothing big yet. But I’m hoping to hear from someone,” said Geraci.

Geraci strongly endorses the NCAA’s decision to allow athletes to now get some compensation through endorsements.

“I think it’s a great thing,” Geraci said. “To see it finally happen is pretty cool.”

Geraci said she never believed the NCAA would go for paying athletes.

“I never thought athletes would get a payment or a salary. This is always thought it would be. With some of the (media) platforms athletes have in college, you should be able to use it for stuff like this. Your scholarship can’t pay for everything,” Geraci said.

Naz Bohannon, who was an all-state basketball player at Lorain, will play his fifth year of eligibility this winter at Clemson. Bohannon said Clemson officials, discussed the NIL rule changes with team members during a Zoom meeting last week.

“They went over what you can and can’t do,” said Bohannon said.

Bohannon said one of his teammates was contacted by an on-line gaming company the first day the rule changes went into effect. Additionally, he said, the school set up a service to help businesses that might want to work with Clemson athletes.

Bohannon, who already earned a degree at Youngstown State, and started a  clothing line with his girlfriend Aaziyah Woods, said he could see using the changes in NIL rules to help market his clothing line.

It was also pointed out to Bohannon the new rules would allow him to make money by putting on his own basketball camp.

“Maybe that’s something I could do with Devon Grant,” Bohannon said, while referring to his former Lorain teammate, who now plays at Miami, and like Bohannon, can also get paid on his name image and likeness.

The Slammers hit three home runs and collected 13 hits as they blew out the Lake Crushers, 8-2 in Frontier League action on June 29 at Mercy Health Stadium.

Joliet entered the game hitting a league-worst .224 as a team.

Braxton Davidson, a 2014 first-round pick by the Atlanta Braves, crushed a mammoth 3-run home run off Crushers’ starter Sean Johnson in the third inning to give the Slammers a 3-1 lead and they never looked back.

Joliet improved to 12-17 with the win. Lake Erie fell to 15-15.

Lake Erie entered the game on a 3-game winning streak and had climbed over the .500 mark. Brody Wofford’s solo home run to lead off the second inning gave the Crushers an early 1-0 lead.

Joliet hit back-to-back home runs in the sixth to break the game open. With two outs and a runner on Kyle Jacobsen hit towering drive to the warning track in left centerfield that he turned into an inside the park home run. Brylie Ware then followed with another bomb.

Johnson fell to 0-5 with the loss. He struck out eight in five innings and allowed just two earned runs. Steve Passatempo collected three hits, including a double, and scored a run to lead Lake Erie’s offense, which was held to five hits.

“Fireworks, fireworks and more fireworks,” owner Tom Kramig said when asked what fans can expect if they attend a Crushers’ game this weekend.

The Crushers inched over .500 when they swept three games from Windy City during a just-completed road trip.

The Crushers are averaging 1,037 a game during their first 13 home dates. They drew 1,029 for the June 29 game against Joliet. Kramig said the team’s goal is to average 2,000 a game. He said ticket sales were slow in June but there are indications attendance should pick up in July and August.

“Last week the phones were ringing off the hook. Lots of calls and emails in the last week,” Kramig said. “I think it took people a while to realize, hey, we can go out,” Kramig said.

Feierabend update

Ryan Feierabend, the Midview graduate who pitched for parts of six seasons in the major leagues and is trying to make his way back to the big league, picked up his second win of the season on June 27. against Windy City. The 35-year-old lefthander went five innings and allowed two earned runs on seven hits. For the season, he’s 2-2 with a 4.88 ERA and has struck out 26 hitters in 27 ? innings.

Feierabend said a mechanical adjustment he made to his delivery with the help of Crushers’ pitching coach Greg Cadaret has helped him pick up velocity on his fastball.

“I hit 90 for the first time in a couple of years,” Feierabend said of his last start.

Getting back to the the major leagues is Feierabend’s ultimate goal, but he’s yet to hear from any clubs who might be interested in his services.But he’s having fun as a member of the Crushers.

“I keep that out of my head,” Feierabend said when asked was he being scouted by any big league clubs. “I’m just concentrating on pitching.”

“It’s gotten a lot better,” Feierabend said when asked how his season is going to date. “I’m having success throwing strikes.”

Crushers’ manager Dan Rohn said Feierabend’s results have improved as he’s gained confidence.

“He changed a couple of things. The main thing is he’s believing. That’s the whole thing. It’s a hard for a guy that is 35-years-old to increase velocity, but he can do that if he does things mechanically and he’s done that. He’s throwing with conviction and believing in himself,” said Rohn.

Getting better

The Crushers team batting average has inched up to .225 and they are no longer last in team batting average. Cutting down on strikeouts has helped the offense, said Rohn.

Guys are taking better at bats, not striking out as much, putting the ball in play. Anytime you put the ball in play you’ve got a chance to do something. You can’t create any offense striking out,” Rohn said.

Joliet, who the Crushers play this week, entered action on June 29 last in the Frontier League in team batting average at .224.

The game between the Crushers and Slammers did not end in time for this edition. Visit out website for a game recap.

You can feel the presence of baseball greats like Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Ty Cobb, Bob Feller, Satchel Paige, Ted Williams and Joe DiMaggio surrounding you as you walk the streets where what’s left of League Park, the former home of the Cleveland Indians, still stands.

Gone are the majestic grandstands that made up the structure that was the home of the Cleveland baseball club – off and on- from 1901 through 1945, and also home to the Cleveland Buckeyes, the city’s Negro League franchise.

All that’s left of the original park is the ticket house built in 1909 and a portion of the brick grandstand wall that runs along East 66th Street, but the memories are everywhere. And slowly but surely the park is coming back to life. An absolutely beautiful ball field was built in the footprint of the old one.

Some local college players got a chance on July 26 to play on that field when the Lake Erie Warhawks traveled to League Park to play the Cleveland Buckeyes in a doubleheader. Lake Erie split the double dip, losing the first game 4-2 but coming back to win the nightcap 3-2 behind the strong pitching of Ian Ashby (Lake Ridge Academy, Oberlin College) and clutching hitting of Michael Knapp (Elyria, Charleston), on a sunny, warm but breezy afternoon.

It was not Ashby’s first time in League Park having played there as a member of the Lake Ridge Academy baseball team. That didn’t make his experience on Saturday any less of a thrill.

“I’ve been playing here since high school. And every time we got off the bus and saw this field, it was immediate smiles, and that’s carried over to college ball,” said Ashby. “I’m really happy to be able to do it again.”

As a pitcher, Ashby loved the roomy dimensions of the ball park. The 40-foot right field wall is just 290 feet away from home plate, but it’s 410-feet to dead centerfield and 380-feet down the left field line.

“I love that 380-foot foul ball. You don’t get that very much,”said Ashby with a laugh. “I think it shows you some baseball history, that not all fields were the same back in the day.”

Getting a chance to play on what’s essentially sacred baseball ground was front and center in the mind of many of the Warhawks.

“I’ve been thinking about all those guys who sat in the same dugouts that we’re in. You think about that when you are playing, that you are stepping in the same batter’s box they did,” said Alex Knapp, an Elyria High grad, who plays in the outfield for the Warhawks.

Don Bliss, the manager of the Warhawks, said it was his first trip ever to League Park.

“It’s a treat. I mean, Babe Ruth played here,” said Bliss.

There was plenty going on in the League Field complex as the Warhawks played. A woman outside the park sold hot dogs and hamburgers from a food cart, and inside the park former New York Yankee great Rob Blomberg signed copies of his new book, “The Captain and Me: On and off the Field with Thurman Munson”.

Blomberg, it turned out, had been in Canton hawking his book and raising money for a scholarship fund in Munson’s name. Munson hails from Canton, and there is a push to get the seven-time all-star and 1976 American League MVP into baseball’s hall-of-fame. Munson has just one year left of eligibility before being excluded from consideration for induction into Cooperstown, and Blomberg is advocating strongly for his late frend’s induction.

“Thurman Munson belongs in the hall-of-fame,” Blomberg said. “Buy my book,” he added. “It’s No. 1 on Amazon this week.”

Baseball aficionados will remember Blomberg as the first designated hitter in Major League Baseball history.

Also busy was the League Park museum, which is filled with baseball memorabilia dating back to the League Park-era.

In there you’ll find the ball that Ruth hit out of League Park for his 426th career-home run as well as oodles of other historical baseball items from the Negro Leagues and even women’s professional baseball.

Marty Yonkoff of Sheffield Village was one of many who passed through League Park as the Warhawks battled with the Buckeyes. He had come to tour League Park with his granddaughter Brooklynn and son-in-law Ernie Spycher.

Yonkoff, who it turned out was the long-time baseball coach at Avon, is a huge baseball fan. He said he has a baseball library that numbers 1,500 books and was making his first trip to League Park.

“It’s beautiful. I’ve read a lot about League Park and wanted to come here for a number of years. It just so happened my granddaughter and son-in-law also wanted to come here. It’s just ironic that a team from Lorain County was playing here at the same time,” said Yonkoff.

Yonkoff, with his ties to Lorain County baseball, and apparent love for the history of the sport, fully appreciated the fact that college-aged players were getting a chance to play at League Park.

“That’s an amazing experience for them. To think they got to play on the same field that all the Negro League stars did and Babe Ruth, Bob Feller, all those guys,” said Yonkoff.

Players were timed in 40-yard dashes, ran a variety of football-type agility drills, and participated in some football-type activities to showcase their football skills for more than 30 college football coaches and recruiters who were on hand.

The event was open to players in the classes of 2022 and 2023 and was sponsored by the Build the Bridge program, which was started a year ago by Kahari Hicks, the offensive coordinator at Cleveland Heights.

The idea of the program is to use the sport of football to bring together kids from different races and different socio-economic backgrounds. The idea was sparked by the civil unrest that rocked the country last summer in the wake of the murder of George Floyd by police.

Hicks is a strong believer that football can act as a unifier. That idea for him began to germinate when Cleveland Heights decided to install a triple-option scheme to its offense. Hicks, who is Black, looked to area programs that ran the same offense and hooked up with Olmsted Falls, which has employed the scheme for years.

Hicks said his talks with about football with the Olmsted Falls coaches, who were white, eventually moved into other topics including race and a bond and understanding was built.

After the George Floyd murder, some Northeast Ohio high school white coaches reached out to area Black coaches and asked what they could do. That’s when Hicks, Cleveland Heights head coach Mac Stephens and Lorain coach Damion Creel created the Build the Bridge program.

A year ago the program took 60 players from different schools for an event at the Pro Football Hall of Fame that included talks about football and life. Urban school and suburban schools scheduled 7-on-7 practices, as well.

Last night’s combine was a continuation of the program. Players in attendance wore Build the Bridge T-shirts and players Black and white talked, dapped each other and competed.

Columbia senior lineman Nick Stopiak attended the event and enjoyed the chance to get to practice with players that came from backgrounds far different from his own.

“It was a great experience to be out here. It’s great to see a bunch of people get together, especially behind the meaning of the program, people from all different groups,” said Stopiak, a returning two-way starter for the Raiders.

Stopiak said a couple of coaches showed interest in his as a potential recruit.

Lorain had several players, which was to be expected as its coach, Creel, helped create Build a Bridge.

“We got a couple of kids on some radars,” Creel said when asked if any of his players had garnered any interest from college coaches.

Schools in attendance included Mount Union, John Carroll, CWRU, Central State University,  to name a few.

Also spotted in attendance was Avon Lake coach Matt Kostelnik. He fully supports the Build the Bridge Foundation.

“I love it. It’s a great concept. Especially in a community like Avon Lake. It’s great for our kids to get out and experience new things and be able to work with people from different communities and really open up their eyes,” Kostlenik said.

Oberlin College head football coach Steve Opgenorth and his staff ran the combine-style event. Players were broken into groups by position and run through timed drills.

Hicks urged participants in the camp to talk to each other.

“Learn about someone you didn’t know during the camp. Find someone you don’t know,” Hicks said.

Midview senior Nicholas Skonlicki, a 6-foot-4, 245-pound senior defensive lineman, was another local player who liked interacting with players from other areas of Northeast Ohio.

“Even though I don’t know any of these people we worked together in events like the relays. We pushed each other to be better. That’s what I took away. It was fun to get in front of the coaches and show them what I had,” said Skolnicki.