Kids take the field at Rockville Centre's Challenger Classic

Rockville Centre hosted its annual Challenger Classic at Hickey Field on June 22, where youngsters of all abilities took the field for a day of fun.

Rockville Centre Little League’s Challenger Division, created in 2013, is an adaptive baseball program for individuals with physical and intellectual challenges. An idea by Tom Bucaria, the league’s president at the time, Gene Kirley, inspired by Bryn and his sons, who all like baseball, volunteered to be the division’s commissioner.

The division, for boys and girls ages 5 to 21, has about 25 players from Rockville Centre and surrounding communities, Kirley said, and brings in about 40 volunteers to help out.

The “buddies,” Kirley called them, mainly comprised of students of St. Agnes Cathedral School and South Side middle and high schools, assist the players at the plate or running the bases during weekly games, held each Saturday at Hickey Field.

The event featured about 50 players in total from Rockville Centre, Baldwin, Long Beach and Plainview, and about 100 spectators, co-commissioner Mike Lawless said. The field’s parking lot, he added, featured two bounce houses, a snow cone machine and face-painting and tattoo stations, as well as food donated by Frank’s Steaks.

AmTrust Title and the Tommy Brull Foundation sponsored the event, and Martin Brull, the organization’s co-founder, threw out the ceremonial first pitch.

“Our vision was always to have kids with special needs able to come out and play the game of baseball, and that’s exactly what we’re seeing now with all these teams coming in from outside communities,” Kirley said. “It’s just a great thrill to see that vision come to fruition.”