{"id":13872,"date":"2016-06-15T09:07:20","date_gmt":"2016-06-15T13:07:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/?p=13872"},"modified":"2016-06-15T09:07:22","modified_gmt":"2016-06-15T13:07:22","slug":"ex-coatesville-ball-player-finds-summer-home-with-seniors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/?p=13872","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Coatesville ball player finds summer home with seniors"},"content":{"rendered":"

Blue Sox catcher Jake Kennedy is right at home at senior living community<\/em><\/h2>\n

\"butler-blue-sox-logo\"BUTLER \u2013 Coatesville native Jake Kennedy and his Shippensburg University\u00a0teammate Dalton Hoiles are more accustomed to hitting fastballs or chasing down fly balls than playing bingo.<\/p>\n

The two Butler BlueSox players recently learned the finer points of Bingo during a game with their fellow residents at Newhaven Court at Clearview, a senior living community in Butler. The players moved in as part of the host family program the BlueSox utilize to find summer homes for their players during the college wooden bat Prospect League season.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe thought a little bit out of the box,\u201d said Gary Renwick, Executive Director of Newhaven Court at Clearview. \u201cWe wanted to be part of the host family program. Jake and Dalton now are part of our community\u2019s family.\u201d<\/p>\n

Residents at the senior living community typically range in age from 70 to 90.<\/p>\n

\"Jake

Jake Kennedy<\/p><\/div>\n

Kennedy, a 21-year-old catcher, and Hoiles, a 20-year-old outfielder and son of former major leaguer Chris Hoiles, don\u2019t look like a typical resident at Newhaven Court at Clearview, but they fit in nicely and are treated like grandsons by the seniors.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a pretty good living situation,\u201d said Hoiles, who, like Kennedy, attends Shippensburg University and plays on the college\u2019s team during the spring. \u201cThey enjoy us being there. I guess you could say they feel young again and they enjoy seeing someone different walking around. It\u2019s good for them. It\u2019s good for us to bond with them. I think it will be a good relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n

The young players are treated like heroes. In addition to being asked to play Bingo or participate in conversations and meals with the senior residents, Kennedy and Hoiles have created a buzz throughout the community.<\/p>\n

The \u201cBlueSox Leaderboard\u201d is in the front lobby of the community. The leaderboard provides updates on how Kennedy and Hoiles are doing statistically.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe put a big banner in the front lobby when they came here,\u201d Renwick said. \u201cEverybody who comes in and sees the banner is super excited.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s a great thing, and I\u2019m hoping they take this as a life lesson. I hope it impacts their lives,\u201d Renwick added. \u201cFrom an inter-generational aspect, it\u2019s a huge thing for us. Small children coming in here to visit or pet therapy has a huge impact on the residents.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis takes it to another level. I have a couple gentlemen here who come up to me every day and ask me how the ballplayers are doing,\u201d he added. \u201cThey look at these boys as baseball players and as celebrities. It\u2019s kind of cool.\u201d<\/p>\n

Larry Sassone is one of the BlueSox owners. He also handles marketing duties for the team. Larry and his wife, Terry, coordinate the host family program.<\/p>\n

Over the years, families in the Butler area have made an impact on players and the organization by serving as host families.<\/p>\n

Newhaven Court at Clearview has provided a different perspective.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been an awesome thing,\u201d Larry Sassone said. \u201cIt has to have a great effect on the residents out there. I\u2019m hoping they treat them like their grandsons and interact with them. It seems like it\u2019s working out great.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Terry Sassone communicates regularly with the players and Renwick.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst I say, \u2018Boys, are you behaving yourselves?\u2019\u201d she joked. \u201cThe other night they played Bingo with the residents. That was awesome. We introduced the boys to Gary (Renwick) when they came into town. Oh, my goodness. There were big baskets in their apartments. There were banners welcoming the players. The boys felt so welcome.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThese players are coming to a place they\u2019re not familiar with,\u201d she explained. \u201cThey\u2019re coming to a new town and a new team. They were made to feel at home right from the outset.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kennedy and Hoiles have a hectic schedule that includes daily practices and workouts as well as home games and road trips. Yet, they try to spend as much time as much as possible with their new neighbors.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going well,\u201d Kennedy said. \u201cWe don\u2019t have too much time to be around because we have to work out or head to the park for games. But everybody loves us. It\u2019s great to interact with the older people, communicate with them and talk about how we did in the game. It\u2019s a good time so far.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did play some bingo. It was fun,\u201d he said. \u201cWe didn\u2019t win though. They\u2019re too good.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is the BlueSox eighth season in Butler. The team plays 60 games, with 30 home dates in the 12-team Prospect League.<\/p>\n

Larry Sassone said the BlueSox might be trail blazers. Other teams might explore the possibility of having senior communities such as Newhaven Court at Clearview host their players for a summer.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are 11 other teams, and we all have host family programs,\u201d Larry Sassone said. \u201cWhen I go to the league meetings, this might be another alternative for other teams that are struggling to find host families. We could be setting a precedent for the league this year.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Blue Sox catcher Jake Kennedy is right at home at senior living community BUTLER \u2013 Coatesville native Jake Kennedy and his Shippensburg University\u00a0teammate Dalton Hoiles are more accustomed to hitting fastballs or chasing down fly balls than playing bingo. The two Butler BlueSox players recently learned the finer points of Bingo during a game with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13874,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[5240,24,5239],"class_list":["post-13872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-butler-blue-sox","tag-coatesville","tag-shippensberg-university"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13872"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13872\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13873,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13872\/revisions\/13873"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}