This month, a Little League Challenger baseball and softball team debuted as part of the Soldotna Little League. It’s designed to give “boys and girls with physical and developmental challenges the opportunity to participate in an organized game of baseball.”

Since 1989, the national Little League organization has offered the Little League Challenger program, but this season marks the first time the program has been offered in Alaska. Soldotna’s Challenger program is open to kids from around the Kenai Peninsula and north to Anchorage.

At the group’s second game, on Saturday, the eight kids enrolled in the program filled each of the bases and the dugout, each partnered with another athlete from a Soldotna Little League team. Tim Weekly, an organizer and one of the parents, pitched balls and kept the game moving.

Weekly said that he and others have been trying to get the Challenger program going locally for years.

“It was due to my son wanting to play ball,” he said. “Little League Baseball is a sport that we should not be telling kids that they can’t. This is an opportunity for them to get out and play on the same field.”

Providing that opportunity, Weekly said, is what Challenger is all about. He said it was about seeing the smiles, the “look in their eyes,” and the involvement of other kids from the larger Little League program.

Weekly said those athletes, who serve as “buddies” during the games, probably don’t realize the impact they’re having.

Baseball and softball, Weekly said, are inclusive sports. He said much of our world is “not truly designed like that,” but that baseball lends itself well to adaptation for the different abilities of the athletes enrolled.

The team plays on the Soldotna Little League Field 6 because it is the most easily accessible to kids who make use of wheelchairs or other equipment.

“Their abilities will vary and we are just fine with that,” he said.

On Saturday some athletes were receiving pitches and some were hitting from a tee — Weekly said they were prepared to accommodate any ability. Each had the opportunity to hit the ball and arrive at each base. “Everybody goes home,” Weekly said.

The smiles that Weekly described were on display.

The challenger program is open to kids from ages 6 to 14, with everything but a glove provided and registration fees waived for this season. To register, visit soldotnalittleleague.org. The spring season runs until June 24, with four more games scheduled.

Reach reporter Jake Dye at jacob.dye@peninsulaclarion.com.

Paxton Katzenberger takes a swing at the ball in Soldotna Little League Challenger Program play at the Little League Fields in Soldotna, Alaska on Saturday, May 20, 2023. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)