Monster price tag for little league’s field of dreams

They’ve qualified to play on little league baseball’s field of dreams - but to get there, these Gold Coast kids have to hit a whopping home run.

Gold Coast Cougars juniors, who are struggling to raise more than $50K so they can compete in the upcoming Australian Championships. Front row: Billy Wharton, 13, Marcus vanderkemp, 12 and Lennox Anderson, 12. Back row l to r: Nate Marr, 13, Ben Courts, 13, Ashton Hodgman, 13, Banjo Shearer, 13 and Cooper Duggan, 12. Picture: Nigel Hallett

They’ve qualified to play on little league baseball’s field of dreams - but to get there, these Gold Coast kids have to hit a whopping $52,000 home run.

After going through last week’s state titles at Redcliffe undefeated, members of the Gold Coast Cougars junior baseball team are facing a fundraising task that’s more mountain than mound to get to the nationals.

The team registration fee for the Australian championships, being held in Lismore next month, is a mammoth $52,000 and the players, their families and clubs are racing the clock to come up with the cash.

They’ve launched a GoFundMe campaign and are running raffles in an urgent bid to raise the funds to allow them to bat and pitch for national glory.

“It’s a huge amount of money to raise in 40 days,” said Cougars manager Bec Wharton, whose son Billy, 13, is on the team.

“The boys are going to have a meeting and do some brainstorming to come up with some other ideas like car washes and sausage sizzles to help raise some more funds.

“It’s a big challenge but also a huge opportunity.”

Cougars coach Paul Ryan said all players in the tournament had to contribute $4000 each for their own fees and accommodation and to help subsidise costs for interstate participants.

“It’s in Lismore so we don’t have to travel far but the teams from WA and Victoria do,” he said.

“Baseball is a pretty expensive sport generally, what with the cost of gear like bats and helmets, and it’s tough for families to find the cash in these economic times But I’m confident we’ll get there.”

Some of the Cougars have only been playing baseball for 18 months but Mr Ryan said they had the potential to go all the way at the nationals.

The winning team will represent Australia at the Intermediate Baseball World Series in California in late July.

Donations to help the boys can be made here.

Originally published as Monster price tag for little league’s field of dreams