DYC Tee-ball Season Wraps Up With Olympic Day

Despite not having a child of his own in the program for three years, Darien Youth Club Tee Ball Director Rick Klepacz just can’t stay away, and Saturday’s Olympic Day is one of the main reasons.

In his seven years as the program’s director, the season-ending event has been the main highlight to the season for Klepacz. The event, which was held at the baseball fields behind , takes the children of all nine teams in the program and allows them to show off the skills they learned during the 10-game season.

“It’s a blast,” Klepacz said. “They have very limited skills when they start. For them to come here, they think it’s the biggest thing in the world. The reason I’ve been doing it for seven years is because of Olympic Day. It’s just a blast to see the kids come out.”

The teams compete in five events: throwing accuracy, the home-to-first relay, throwing distance, hitting distance and the home-to-home relay. The results are then tallied up and the top three teams receive special trophies. Saturday, the Athletics, Marlins and Blue Jays occupied the top three slots.

“It’s great,” Athletics coach Sam Kuhlman said. “This is the third year that I’ve done it, and the kids love it. We’re not keeping score or anything during the regular season, so this gives them a chance to show off their skills.”

After the trophies were awarded, the attention of the players, all ages four to six, immediately turned to the frozen custard donated by , but Athletics player Kelsey Ambuehl did manage to talk about what she liked the most at the event in between scoops.

“I liked doing the running,” Ambuehl said. “I did good. It was awesome.”

Participation in the league has dropped through the years. Klepacz said that there were upwards of 24 teams when he took over, which necessitated two Olympic Days a year. That has dwindled to nine teams.

“I don’t know if it’s the population or what, but it has really died down,” Klepacz said. “A lot of people think that new people aren’t moving into Darien with kids. I’m not sure if word is getting out the best it can. This is really the feeder system for the DYC, so if you have a good turnout here, you’ll have a good turnout at the higher levels. It’s down everywhere.”

For the older players in the league, the event wraps up their tee ball experience. The girls will move on to play softball while the boys will continue on their baseball path. The next level for both is coach pitch, which teams started to do near the end of this tee ball season to get the kids used to it.

“They did a good job,” Kuhlman said. “They got a good dose of coach pitch. It’s just nice when you coach older kids to be back where everybody is just having fun.”