Knik Little League's Birchwood Jamboree kicks off with softball home run derby
Jul. 17—The youth and amateur sports landscape in Alaska during the summer has historically been dominated by baseball, whether it's the Alaska Baseball League or American Legion.
The Legion season starts immediately after the high school baseball season ends, but for girls around the state who play softball, there's no such option.
Now, the Knik Little League is on a mission to provide more opportunities for those girls to play the sport they love and stay active during the summer months with events such as the Birchwood Jamboree.
"It's important that we have events like this because we kind of get overshadowed by baseball," KLL Vice President Dan Trixinger said. "We have a lot of girls that are playing the sport, that are growing up in the sport and go on to college and get scholarships to the sport."
Teams and players from all over the Last Frontier, as far south as Sitka and as far north as Fairbanks, converged on the Chugiak and Eagle River community this weekend to take part in the three-day event, which kicked off with a home run derby Thursday night at the Loretta French Sport Complex.
"We wanted another event to celebrate our Birchwood Jamboree, bring the community together and give an opportunity for girls to excel with a crowd cheering them on," Trixinger said.
While it's not the first-ever softball home run derby in Alaska's history, it's the first in which girls of all ages were able to participate, according to KLL President Carl Waters, who has been involved in the Alaska softball community for over three decades.
"We can only do this stuff because we have really good sponsors that come out to support our program and this tournament," Trixinger said.
He said the goal is to grow the tournament each year. Each team only had to pay $100 per tournament participant. The typical cost for such events ranges from $350 to $400.
"We do this so that everyone can play no matter social economics," Trixinger said. "We want everyone to have the same opportunity to play in a premier tournament."
The five age groups that were included were 10U, 12U, 14U, 16U and 18U. The top three finishers in each age group were presented their prizes by Miss Alaska 2022, Jessica Reisinger.
She is the great niece of Loretta French, the legendary civil servant who the sports complex is named after, and she thinks it's great that the Knik Little League is putting on events such as the Jamboree.
"I actually used to play softball. My brother was really big in Little League, I basically grew up on the ballfields, so it's really cool to finally give back to an event like this," Reisinger said.
She only played the sport when she was a younger kid but believes that it's important for girls to have role models in and outside of sports.
"As Miss Alaska, one of my goals is to really be that role model," Reisinger said. "I feel really lucky that I had so many wonderful women role models and mentors growing up, and it's really important to me to be that person for somebody else."
Trixinger said having Reisinger come out to their event is another opportunity for their girls to "see someone in a position of mentorship, leadership and development" because life is about more than just softball.
They stress the importance of getting good grades and emphasizing the student first and athlete second.
"If you do the work in the classroom, if you do the work on the field, then we'll do hard work creating opportunities for you to be successful," Trixinger said.
The top winners for each age group received a new bat. Aubree Ogee was the winner of the 14U division after she smashed three straight homers over the fence to advance past the semifinals. She nearly knocked a fourth straight out of the park on her first at bat in the finals.
"It's pretty cool. I've never done one of these before and I was really nervous," Ogee said.
She said that she was just as nervous during her third at bat in the finals as she was in her first. Her older sister, Malia Ogee, was a First Team All Conference and State Championship All Tournament team honoree at Dimond High School this past season and competed in the 18U division.
Even though the 2022 graduate didn't make it to the finals, her younger sister said she intends to share her prize.
"I'm going to be the nice sister and I'm going to give my bat to her," Ogee said.
Giving back and "passing it on" is one the core values of their organization, and it shows in the way that the older generation helps the younger generation and vice versa.
"If we have our younger girls here mentored by our older girls and our older girls mentored by our female coaches that are involved in this program, girls learn leadership that way," Trixinger said.
