CHESAPEAKE, VA (WTKR)- A tradition started about 10 years ago on the Western Branch baseball and softball fields continued Thursday night.
The Bruins held their annual Autism Awareness games as both squads took on King's Fork. Western Branch softball triumphed, 17-1, while the baseball team claimed a 10-0 victory, but Thursday was about more than just the game or the final score.
"We started one year with t-shirts and then the next year we did jerseys and then we just made it a thing," Bruins' head softball coach Sarah Wright said. "Even my JV team wears the jerseys throughout the month of April and I think other teams have done the same thing."
Wright and her husband, Roland, who is Western Branch's head baseball coach, started the games in honor of their son, Nathan, who is autistic. The Bruins took the field in special jerseys, sported decals on their batting helmets and even had the field decorated. Students with autism get the chance to run onto the field with the teams to experience that excitement sports can bring.
What started at Western Branch has spread throughout Hampton Roads. A handful of other programs across the 757 have followed suit, holding Autism Awareness games of their own, which means a lot to the Wrights.
"That's really important to us," Sarah said. "We started it on a whim thinking let's do this for the kids here and the fact that other people have jumped on the bandwagon and want to make it special for kids around them and honor us and raise awareness for other kids, it's just great."
A community has embraced taking the field for a good cause and Coach Wright hopes that the effort helps people understand that everybody deserves the adventures that sports offers.
"I just want people to realize that they deserve the spotlight and they deserve to be recognized and experience these things that some of these kids take for granted," she pointed out. "It's not something they get every single day and to have a moment out here, I think it really just lets them shine and it's important to grow like that."
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