Pahokee Baseball: A New Era

My name is Chad Sanford and I am the head baseball coach at Pahokee. This little town located right off the south-east corner of Lake Okeechobee has always been known as a football town or a basketball town...occasionally a track town. We want to make it known that those are not the only 3 sports that should be watched carefully. The baseball program is one that is in need of being built from the ground up. While our diamond has clay, bases, and a backstop, that is it. We lack the necessities of being taken seriously as a true baseball program. We didn't have hats until half way through the season. Some players had to rotate games in which they played since we didn't have enough pants that fit everyone. We were able to make it through the season with 3 bats, two dozen game balls, and 3 dozen practice balls. All of our games are played at 4 since we do not have lights. Everybody will always question the official scorer and the umpire since there is no scoreboard or sound system. And the only way to hit a home run, is by hitting an inside the park home run or hitting the ball over the property fence (which only happened once between Pahokee and all visiting teams...and wouldn't you know it, he was our third baseman who also plays for the football team) which would be a home run in some major league stadiums. With the help and support of some generous donations by fellow friends, coaches, and schools, we made it through the season showing big improvement, which is the important thing.

The problem with being considered a "football town" is that most financial donations go to that sport. While the equipment donations were a HUGE help, unfortunately we are not able to pay for the umpires and travel with equipment adding up to $3000-4000. That was only with 15 games. This year we have more games on the schedule which means those funds will be increasing. Those are expenses that we had to come up with which cleared out all of the funds we made with an apparel catalog. There is only so much the car wash, popcorn, and candy fundraisers can do. To build this program up; it needs change and help in a big way.

 I am confident that the final game of the regular season last year, where we knotched the first win for Pahokee Baseball in over 10 years, marked the turning point that will start to build up the program. This will no longer be considered just a football town, we will make it known as a baseball town as well.