KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Kansas City Royals are no doubt, ready for October baseball. Ahead of Wednesday night's Wild Card sweep over Baltimore, watch parties around the city celebrate a Blue October.
"Having people like that around who are on big-time accomplishment teams in your city, certainly makes for a positive environment," said Tony Hurla, head baseball coach at Kansas Christian College.
Hurla is one of many programs utilizing the facilities at Kansas City's Urban Youth Academy. The National Christian College Athletic Association affiliate is in its sixth season. Its faith-based education and baseball program aligns with Urban Youth Academy.
"The free programming they offer for baseball and softball every night here is something we want to spread the word about and get people participating in," said Hurla. "We want people to volunteer and get after it with those kids to maybe end up at a college like ours or a bigger one."
Kansas Christian College baseball players come from across the globe including, the Dominican Republic, Colombia, and Massachusetts. The wide variety of cultures and upbringings on its roster doesn't cast a shadow on players from the Kansas City area.
“I used to play on the fields before it was here," explained Cerron Bryant, a sophomore outfielder at Kansas Christian College. "Being able to come here and use the facility whilst growing as a baseball player at Lincoln has fueled my process now.”
Kansas City Urban Youth Academy prides itself on being a positive environment while creating work ethic values in young athletes.
Jason Lewis is a lifelong Royals fan, his daughter participates in free coaching clinics through the Urban Youth Academy.
“It’s really important for the youth of Kansas City to have a place to go, not every kid has the access to the type of facilities available at the Urban Youth Academy," Lewis said. “It’s great to see the Royals invest in Kansas City.”
Its free coaching offers access to expensive equipment for families who can't afford it. Ali Bishop-Oliver was one of those athletes.
“It’s bringing a lot of urban kids together, especially kids that don’t have opportunity or pathways they wanna take," said Bishop-Oliver. "A lot of the tournament teams I played on were expensive. Sometimes a couple thousand per team, per kid. I couldn’t always afford to play.”
It's why Coach Hurla encourages his players to program with Urban Youth Academy.
“What I want to see with kids that go through our program is that they make a positive impact in our community." Hurla said. "The sense of pride rubs off in their lives when they leave here. When we’re focusing on that, I feel confident we are building strong young men who are going to go out and make a positive impact on our society."
For more information on baseball and softball programming at Urban Youth Academy, click here.
KSHB 41 reporter Ryan Gamboa covers Miami County in Kansas and Cass County in Missouri. Share your story idea with Ryan.
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