The Virgin Valley High School Baseball program had to postpone its big party last week. The team was planning a big fundraiser dinner for Saturday, Jan. 15. But at the last minute the event had to be cancelled when the Clark County School District went into its “5-day Pause” due to the pandemic.
But now that the schools, and the sports, are up and running again, so is the Bulldogs Baseball Bash. The big fundraiser has been rescheduled for Thursday, January 20 starting at 6 pm at the Eureka Resort Grand Canyon Ballroom. All of the public is invited to come and support the VVHS Baseball team.
Featured at the event will be two guest speakers.
The first speaker will be Wick Udy who played baseball professionally with the Seattle Mariners organization. In college, Udy played for Dixie State College and later at the University of Utah.
The second speaker at the dinner will be Gorman Heimueller, a former Major League Baseball pitcher for the Oakland Athletics. Heimueller also worked as a Minor League pitching coach and coordinator for over 35 years.
The VVHS Baseball program has seen some significant changes to its coaching staff for the upcoming season. Dan Wright, who was previously an assistant coach for the team is taking over the spot of Head Coach for the program. Assistant coaches John Felix and Nate Porter will stay on in their roles. New assistant coaches Nick Montoya and John Hoover will be joining the program.
“We have big plans for some good training coming up,” said Coach Wright in an interview with The Progress. “We have some good kids coming up in the program and we are just excited to play some baseball. We look forward to carrying on the tradition that we already have with Bulldog Baseball.”
Wright has been involved in the game of baseball for most of his life. He received a low-round draft pick by the Atlanta Braves out of high school. But he decided to go to college instead. He played baseball for two years at Dixie College where he was recognized as a Junior College All American player. He then moved on to play for University of Nebraska. As a Cornhusker, Wright was part of the team that went to the Big 12 Championships in the year 2000.
Wright currently works as Director of Commercial Banking at the Bank of Nevada Mesquite branch. He has served the past 8 years as President of the Virgin Valley Little League.
Wright said that he hopes that the upcoming fundraiser event will build some community interest and involvement in the VVHS program for the coming season. Even despite its postponement.
“It wasn’t really how we envisioned this thing to go,” Wright said. “But sometimes you have to roll with the punches.”
“We are just looking to generate some more excitement about Bulldogs Baseball in the community,” Wright added. “We expect to share some great stories and give a little advice for the kids. It should be a fun event.”
Dinner tickets are $35 per adult, $25 per student (K-12). Kids five and under are free with an adult.
Tickets can be purchased in advance by contacting any of the Bulldog Baseball coaching staff. They can also be purchased at the door on the night of the dinner.
A raffle will be held for a number of prizes including VVHS Baseball hats and hitting jackets, rounds of golf, and two VVHS branded Louisville Slugger maple wood bats.
For more information about the event, contact Dan Wright at 702-349-5017.
