By ISAAC LINFORD
The Progress
The Moapa Valley Little League held its annual Season Kickoff event at the Logandale Ball Fields on Friday evening, March 22. The international Little League organization is celebrating the 50th anniversary of girls being able to play in the league and the theme of the evening was “Girls with Game” in honor of this benchmark.
Instead of the opening ceremony being an early Saturday morning event as in years past, the event kicked off at 5 pm with family festivities before the ceremony. These included a live DJ, face painting, a bouncy house, and plenty of food. The opening ceremony got started at 6 pm.
There was a raffle with prizes donated by Lins, Home Hardware, Ace Hardware, Roche Constructions, McDonalds, Subway, CaBLP, and The Dairy. Food for the players and coaches was provided by Moapa Valley Dental.
The Grant M. Bowler Elementary School choir started off the ceremony right by performing The Star-Spangled Banner. The VFW Elwood Perkins Post 8336 presented the flag during the anthem. Then led the whole crowd joined in singing a verse of “Take Me Out to the Ball Game.” T
The teams, which were all gathered around the edge of the infield, were each introduced in a player parade starting with tee ball and moving on to coach pitch softball, coach pitch baseball, minors softball, minors baseball, majors baseball, and juniors softball teams. When announced, each team caming running taking a course around the pitchers mound and dancing to music played by DJ Jordan before returning to their spot.
The teams would pose for pictures in front of a balloon arch placed before the pitcher’s mound. There were a total of 37 teams involved.
Afterwards, the ceremonial first pitch was thrown by Terry Cameron, a resident of Moapa Valley whose father had started Moapa Valley Little League’s first girls softball team in 1974.
Cameron also played softball for the Pirates while attending MVHS herself in the 1970s.
This ceremony represented a landmark 50 years since 1974 when girls were first able to play in the Little League across the world. To honor this, the Little League has sponsored the “Girls With Game” campaign to bring awareness to playing softball in Little League. All the girls at the ceremony on Friday had special patches for their uniforms which commemorated this anniversary.
“Over the last couple of years our Little League softball program has grown to be the largest in Southern Nevada,” said MVLL opening ceremonies committee chair Marcy Pettingill. “For a lot of teams outside of Moapa Valley the girls get to an age where they want to play softball they start going into club and travel teams, but in Moapa Valley they start playing together early and they stay together through middle school and high school. There’s a unique aspect to our town that keeps the kids together and connected.”
This was illustrated when the final team was introduced and the MVHS varsity softball team came running forward in uniform for a photo op at the pitcher’s mound as the crowd cheered.
