Page 28 - LifelineInaugural

MARKEY RIVERS

A LEAGUE

OF HIS OWN

by Charles Gee
I t is a hot, humid summer evening in Quincy, threatened by local government. He played midget

Fla. The sun is setting, most of the local league football in the fall, intramural basketball in
businesses have closed for the day, and the the spring, and his favorite, little league baseball, in
town is operating at what is a seemingly normal Quincy’s summer heat.
calm pace. But at Jackson Height’s baseball
park another story is being told. Kids are overly “These programs are a big part of our community,”
excited playing a game of softball. Their parents Rivers said. “It’s bigger than sports. It’s not even
look on from behind the fence as they swat the about sports really. It’s about our community coming
pesty flies and other insects away from their faces. together.”
Although the insects persist to invade their noses,
eyes, and mouths, the joy on the parents’ faces can Rivers never set out to be a community hero. He said
still bee seen. Their children are celebrating the end of he felt he was just doing his part as an active member
a season in a baseball league that was threatened to when he signed his name to be a volunteer coach for
be indefinitely dissolved because of the city’s budget a tee-ball team some eight years ago. It took only one
constraints. When the news was announced that the season before Rivers found himself coaching a team in
little league baseball league would no longer exist it sent every sport the Quincy Recreation Department offered.
a shockwave through the small town. The community He often served multiple roles as not only coach, but as
needed a leader. The kids needed a hero. City officials mentor and sometimes father to some kids who came
needed a mediator and Markey Rivers volunteered to from single parent households. These acts of kindness
be all three. earned the respect of the parents and the admiration of
“ IT'S BIGGER THAN the very programs that brought the community together
their children. So when Rivers received the news that

SPORTS...IT'S ABOUT OUR
would be taken away, he wasted no time into fighting to
COMMUNITY COMING get them back.
TOGETHER. ” “Well city officials informed us that there would be no
more intramural sports for the children, except football.
Rivers understood the impact of the recreational I then consulted with my wife about starting a league
programs for the children and the impact that it of our own. With her support, I was able to form the
had beyond developing athletic skills. He grew up Markey Rivers’ Play Ball League,” Rivers explained.
participating in the same activities that were now being Rivers asked city officials if his newfound league could

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