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Sports

Courage Center's Rolling Twins Will Get A Field Of Their Own

Local wheelchair softball teams are thanking lots of supporters, the Minnesota Twins, the city of Brooklyn Park and a Major League Baseball/Pepsi Refresh Grant.

Manny Guerra has spent the past 20 years playing wheelchair softball for various teams in the Twin Cities area. If there’s one thing he’s learned, it’s the importance of a quality ballpark he and his teammates can call home.

“It’s about self confidence, the ability to execute a play,” Guerra said. “For us to be playing wheelchair ball, it makes you feel better about what you’re doing. You’re not playing in a parking lot. You’re playing in a very nice venue that’s customized to your sport. You can feel proud about that.”

Thanks to the city of Brooklyn Park, the Minnesota Twins and the Major League Baseball/Pepsi Refresh Grant contest, Guerra and his teammates will have that luxury beginning next season.

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The Golden Valley-based ’s Rolling Twins wheelchair softball teams will move into a new home next July, a customized wheelchair softball field located at Northwoods Park on 107th Avenue and Winnetka Avenue North.

The Rolling Twins benefited from a vote-based competition through the Pepsi Refresh program, which pitted the Minnesota Twins against 14 other Major League Baseball organizations. Whichever team garnered the most public votes received $200,000 from Pepsi to put toward a community organization’s endeavor.

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With more than 2 million votes, the Twins—and the Rolling Twins—won the contest. Groundbreaking took place Sept. 24, and the team will move into the new facility in July 2012.

The $200,000 is a large portion of the field’s final costs, said Sharon Van Winkel, Courage Center director of sports and recreation. After other sizable donations, the Courage Center is looking to raise another $100,000 for the finished product. The field's total cost is around $500,000.

“I’m in total debt to everyone who voted,” Guerra said. “It’s funny when you think of all the pieces that had to come together just for the opportunity to present itself.”

The Rolling Twins, who won the national wheelchair softball championship this summer, will have a new home next year. But the process began a decade ago.

The Rolling Twins program is made up of two teams—a junior squad for ages 8 to 17 and an adult squad for athletes 18 and older. Van Winkel said the Rolling Twins’ previous home was a parking lot next to Brooklyn Park Community Activity Center and Brooklyn Park Library.

While the teams were grateful for a place to play, Van Winkel said it had its disadvantages.

“People using the library, when they’d drive home they’d drive right between first and third base not knowing there is a softball game going on,” Van Winkel said. “We didn’t want to wait until the day someone gets run over.”

During the past 10 years, the Courage Center has worked with the Twins organization, and when Major League Baseball and Pepsi chose the ballclub as one of 15 teams competing for the Refresh Grant contest, Twins Director of Community Relations Bryan Donaldson said the organization knew the Courage Center could use the money.

Through advertisements on the Twins official website and Target Field’s jumbotron, as well as an endorsement from outfielder Michael Cuddyer and aggressive backing from Courage Center advocates, word spread through Minnesota and beyond.

Van Winkel's husband—a wheelchair athlete—is from Belgium and knew of fellow wheelchair athletes in his native land who voted. A former Courage Center wheelchair athlete in Australia spread the word, as did a former Courage Center co-worker in China and a foreign exchange student from the country of Georgia.

“We literally had votes all around the world,” Van Winkel said. 

Donaldson said the Twins enjoy their relationship with the Courage Center and were pleased to help with funding the new field. At the groundbreaking ceremony, Donaldson, team President Dave St. Peter and Twins great Tony Oliva—among others—attended to celebrate the achievement.

“We realize baseball and softball is more than just a game,” Donaldson said. “It’s about lessons of teamwork, responsibility and a healthy outlet after school. In all facets, inner city or disabled kids, we’re looking to grow the game of baseball and give the kids an opportunity to have a place to play.”

Guerra said moving to the new field will present an opportunity to link past wheelchair softball players to those in the future.

“I developed my skills and got better at it, but I relied on my mentors to teach me the game,” he said. “For me, the opening of the field is going to be special because it’s our way of paying homage to our players before us.”

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