Stephenie Coonrod & David Ramos Talk A League of Their Own League. AlanAlfordSportsTalkShow.com

All right this is Allen from the Allen Alpha Sports Talk show. Joined here with Stephanie Coonrod and she's the executive director and founder of a league of our own Tampa and Riverview and we just enjoyed a great game. Talk about that experience to go out here and have fun with everybody out here. Well the wonderful thing about today was this was our flagship game and we partnered with Hillsborough County Parks and Recs and we're here at the Apollo Beach Park. We're renting this from them and it was a great way to get our players from other areas in Tampa here because we have so many wonderful people in Tampa. We just we really wanted to branch out and allow these adults to have empowerment of inclusion in the sport that they normally wouldn't be able to be in. So today felt amazing. It was great and it's been exhausting to get to this point but we had a lot of really great sponsors and we had the funding and so now we're able to play over here. Yes and talk about the volunteers. You have volunteers that come out here and spend their time and really put a lot of effort into helping you. Talk about them. Well I have the most amazing volunteers. It's people that we've met in the Brandon Riverview Chamber of Commerce who have seen the mission that I have and the passion that I have and that Dennis Mueller has to run the league and be here. So they see our passion and the actual effort that we put into it and they want to be a part of it because they know that the children of little leagues have amazing support but the adults are being forgotten and we want to highlight that. And so that's what we do here at A League of Their Own. We highlight that that the adults matter because some of them are still kid-like and they've got that heart just like the little kids and so we want them to have the funding and the place and the time to do the baseball as well. And it was a lot of fun and it wasn't all day too. It was you know it's organized so well that everybody gets involved but they not out here in the hot sun all day long. We're doing it earlier. We want to make sure that they're not overheating. We do have a CPR certified volunteers. We want to make sure that's available and we always have our first aid kit and hot and cold compresses on you know on property. And we just plan everything out to make sure we have what we need and thanks to our sponsors we have what we needed to start the season. That's amazing. You got some top flight sponsors. Talk about them and their support. Well we had Foster's Financial and Aubrey Eikenberry with Four Corners Cleaning. She's an amazing supporter for our league. She really believes in us and what she did was help file for grants. So we got that and then we had Thomas Presley with Modern Woodman's Financial and Dr. Essie Trent who runs K2 Academy. She is an amazing supporter for adults with disabilities. She herself has twin boys with autism and spectrum disorder and she's donated and that's how we got our wonderful tents out here because there was no dugout covers. So because of Thomas Presley, David Ramos with Next Steps Learning, they donated we were able to buy these and Dr. Trent. That's why we have these wonderful amazing tents and even the 10x10 was donated by Jess Coonrod. So everything we have is from our sponsors and we just want to highlight them and thank them. Next Steps Learning, Abe Augustos with United Lending and United Lending is doing a lot of financial support through the mayoral race in the chamber and Abe is actually running for mayor. So with United Lending doing the donations and stuff, we're actually going to be able to raise more funds. So it's amazing. Our community is amazing. It truly is and those tents are fantastic. I noticed it earlier too. And finally, what about the raise? Do you think your thoughts about the raise possibly moving to Tampa? Are you for that or what are your thoughts on it? I really am scared to say this because I love Brett Phillips and I love Kim Counts and I love everybody with the Tampa Bay Rays, but some of the commissioners and people in general were just mentioning that there's a lot of funding going to be taken away from the actual parks and recs potentially. If it does come here, where are they going to get the money? I personally want the raise here. I just, you know, I'm so scared about where the funding is going to come from. If I could raise some money myself for the raise, I would do it because I love them. But they're just such an amazing foundation organization that I want the best for them because they actually help us. They're great proponents for this league and for Buddy Baseball. They really care and they bring us out to Magic Mondays. And so if they were here in Tampa, it would be a great benefit to us as well. Yes. So that's awesome. And how can people keep up with the league and follow you and check into everything? Well, we are big supporters online of all the sports events, like with USF and Tampa Bay Rays. So we're always like tagging them in our stuff. And we are at ALOTORiverview.org and ALOTOTampa.org. And that's also a lot of Riverview and a lot of Tampa online for Facebook and Instagram and LinkedIn. Make sure you guys follow them. This is an awesome, awesome organization. I'm so honored to be out here covering this event. Make sure you guys support. And this is David Ramos. I can introduce him. He's our CEO. Come on out, David. David Ramos. David is a big supporter financially as well. Yes, that's awesome. And talk about your passion with the league and getting involved. Well, first of all, I'm super blessed to be working with Stephanie. She is a tireless advocate for folks with disabilities, adults especially. So I'm just super blessed that we connected. The next thing I'd love to highlight is that this league gives people an opportunity to be seen who've never been seen. So we take tremendous pride in our league. We take tremendous efforts to ensure that the people that we serve get to experience the best of us. And we're just grateful to all the people that have helped us and brought us to where we are now. Yeah, that's fantastic. And talk about how long have you been connected with the league? So I've been with the league for this will be two years now. He's been on the Cardinals with Tampa and he has a team over there. I've had two teams at the Cardinals and this is my third season, second year. And only honestly, our goal for Stephanie and I is to bring the joy that this league brings to adults with disabilities across the state. And, you know, we're just really enthusiastic about being the in the lives of these folks. Yeah. Yeah. And I can see the joy in the adults and the people, the adults, the kids, everyone. Talk about the joy that's coming out here to this baseball field. I think the way you see, the only way to truly experience the joy is to just be out here, to see the smiles on their faces, to be able to see the joy in their hearts when they cross home plate and get all that warm reception. People come from Ocala, Florida, from all over the state, which tells me a couple of things. Number one, that they love the league. And number two, that there's a profound need in different regions for something like this that gives folks the opportunity to showcase their talents athletically and to be in a part of a social family that puts them on a pedestal and celebrates them for their individuality. Yeah. Awesome. And how can people follow you as well? My name is David Ramos on Facebook. I'm the agency owner for Next Steps Learning. And you can find me on LinkedIn, Instagram, and Realtor Ramos. And then on Facebook is just David Ramos. Yeah. Awesome. League of our own. There you go. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you so much, Alan. We appreciate having you. Thank you for having me. I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you so much.