Buddy Baseball Newsletter
December 2018
Hello Buddy Baseball Fans, 
 
2018 was another great year for Buddy Baseball. This past fall was the start of our tenth year! One of the highlights of the year was being featured on Fox 13 - Good Day Tampa Bay - Charley's World. Charley and the crew were out all morning doing four live television interviews during a game. Another highlight was the generosity to the Tampa Bay Rays giving us 200 tickets to a baseball game this summer.
 
I am very grateful to all of our fantastic buddies, coaches, volunteers and sponsors that make Buddy Baseball a league to be proud of.  
 
Our 20th season will start on Saturday, February 23rd, 2019 and go until April 6th, 2019. Registration is now open on our website.

Have a great holiday season and we will see you in the spring! 
 
Russ Oberbroeckling
Executive Director


Registration
Don't forget to register for our next season.  We may be limiting the number of players with special needs that can play, so sign up now if you haven't already.  The season will start on 2/23/2019 and end on 4/6/2019. The Meet and Greet will be on Saturday 2/16/2019. The registration deadline is Monday1/7/2019 at 5:00pm. We need more buddies.  Please spread the word.
 
Here is the link to register.

Player Spotlight
Dominic Scarfone
Dominic Scarfone
 
Dominic attends  Veterans Elementary and is 11 years old. Dominic has a sister named Mackenzie. He would like to meet Elvis. He has a puppy named Elvis, a Shih Tzu named Gizmo and two cats, Keiko and Hiccup . If Dominic had $1000, he would buy Nerf guns. His favorite TV show is America's Got Talent. If he were famous it would be for his baking skills.
Buddy Spotlight - Sami Hodges
Sami Hodges
Sami is 18 years old and is a student at Hillsborough Community College and she likes Auburn football. Her favorite artist is Sean Mendes and her favorite thing about summer is swimming. Sami's favorite food is pepperoni pizza. She wants to be an actress.
Rookie Spotlight
Victoria Rusinko  and Lexi Kilfoyl
Victoria Rusinko and Lexi Kilfoyl  
This past season was Victoria's and  Lexi's first season playing Buddy Baseball.

Victoria attends Caminiti Exceptional Center and is 13 years old. If she had $1000, she would buy books. Her favorite food is French Fries. Victoria's favorite baseball team is the Tampa Tarpons and her special talent is making people smile.

Lexi is 17 years old and attends Academy at the Lakes. She was named the Gatorade Softball player of the year for the state of Florida and has committed to play softball at the University of Alabama. Her favorite subject in school is science and she wants to be a Forensic Scientist. Lexi's favorite restaurant is Panera Bread.
Coach Spotlight - Joanna Ofray
Joanna Ofray
Joanna was born in Perth Amboy, New Jersey, but has been in Florida since she was six years old. She is married with four kids, two girls and two boys. Both boys are players on the Cyclones. Gabe has played for nine seasons and Luis has played for five seasons. This will be her fourth season coaching. She started by helping her son on the field and she really enjoyed it so she decided to help coach.

Joanna's favorite food is pizza. She loves animals and her favorite being sea turtles. Joanna has never played baseball before Buddy Baseball, but the way her children's eyes lit up and their faces smiled, she knew this was going to be their new favorite thing.

Joanna has a degree in early childhood education so she could learn how to teach children with special needs. "I truly enjoy working with them. The kids have such potential and I enjoy watching them accomplish everything they can."
Volunteer Spotlight -  Grant Butts
Grant Butts
Grant is one of our announcers. He is 11 years old and is in the sixth grade at Benito Middle School. As you can see in the picture, he wants to be a sports announcer. Grant's favorite team is the Tampa Bay Lightning and his favorite player on the Lightning is #21 Braden Point. Grant plays forward on his ice hockey team. His favorite food is cheeseburgers and strawberries and he loves his three dogs.
Parent Spotlight
Alicia and Tim Taylor
 Alicia and Tim Taylor
Tim and Alicia have been married 20 years. Tim was born and raised in Tampa. Alicia was born in Texas. They both graduated from King High School. Tim is a Criminal Defense Attorney and Alicia is the Office Manager. They have three children, Halley, a freshman at the University of Florida. Matthew, who has been a buddy for 11 seasons, is a Junior at Wharton High School and Scott who is in the 8th grade at Benito. Tim is a Buddy Baseball sponsor and he also announces some Buddy Baseball games. One of their favorite things about Buddy Baseball is when the kids celebrate after crossing home plate with a dab or a dance!
Sponsor Spotlight
Image Depot Express
Image Depot is based out of bright and sunny Lakeland Florida. The company was established in 1989 and has remained a family owned and operated business for the last 29 years becoming the go-to facility for screen-printing and large format digital printing across the Interstate 4 corridor. They have also been a proud sponsor and partner of Buddy Baseball providing the hats and jerseys for each team since 2015. 

Amazon Smile
Amazon Smile
When shopping on line. Consider using Amazon Smile. A portion of the sale will be donated back to Buddy Baseball, at no extra cost to you. Just use  https://smile.amazon.com/   selecting Buddy Baseball as the organization that you are supporting the next time you are shopping on Amazon. Thanks

Contact Us
(813) 416-5742
Until next time...   PLAY BALL!!

Russ Oberbroeckling
Executive Director
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