When Shenango Township native Joe Hudak parted methods with the Winthrop College baseball workforce in 2010, he wasn't positive of his subsequent profession transfer.
After a while he remained in Rock Hill, South Carolina and labored because the director of the Piedmont Fellowship of Christian Athletes, which allowed him to observe his religion.
“My religion has at all times been an enormous a part of my life,” mentioned the 66-year-old Hudák. “So it was a fantastic alternative for me.
A former Union Excessive and Geneva School head coach, Hudak mixed his religion and love of baseball in 2015 to discovered the Piedmont Delight, a Southern Collegiate Baseball League workforce centered on Christianity and neighborhood service.
“I felt a need to convey youngsters throughout the nation to hone their expertise and observe their religion,” Hudak mentioned. “So we play baseball on this league and we additionally work locally after which on the finish of the season we go to do missionary work within the Dominican Republic.”
Hudák, who serves as common supervisor and coach of the Delight, has skilled success in every of the workforce's first three seasons. Piedmont received the six-team league common season championship in 2015 and 2016 and can play for the postseason title this weekend in a three-game sequence towards the 2017 common season champion, Showcase Baseball Academy Bones.
“We've been lucky to get good individuals right here yearly,” he mentioned. “And never all of our guys must be Christians, we don't make them signal an announcement of religion or something. However all the fellows know that we're a faith-based workforce and we now have a compulsory Bible examine and we anticipate them to be part of our work locally.”
After spending 19 seasons at Winthrop's helm, Hudak mentioned bringing the workforce collectively was a course of at first that concerned quite a lot of contacts he made within the faculty sport.
“The primary yr I despatched out an electronic mail to each faculty baseball coach within the nation,” he mentioned. “We constructed this primary workforce and to be trustworthy, our greatest recruiters are our gamers now. Final yr we had one participant from Morehead State College, this yr we had 4 as a result of that one participant got here again and talked about what a superb expertise.” had.”
Shortly after finishing their playoff streak, 13 Delight gamers and coaches will board a airplane Tuesday and head to the Dominican Republic. The workforce will spend eight days overseas taking part in three video games and finishing mission work.
“Neighborhood work and missionary work are crucial to us,” mentioned Hudák. “”We partnered with Tender Hearts, which is an area girls's shelter, and Habitat for Humanity. We attempt to inform our guys that it's about giving again to the neighborhood. We've had quite a lot of neighborhood assist that's helped us get to the place we’re.”
Hudak has three youngsters — Logan, Preston and Callie. His mom, Betty, nonetheless lives in New Citadel.
Donations might be made on-line to assist fund the workforce's mission work at www.pridebaseball.internet.
csauertieg@ncnewsonline.com
