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PERFECT GAME BEGINS PARTNERSHIP WITH BEYOND SPORTS LAB
WITH BLACK HISTORY BASEBALL AND SOFTBALL CAMP
Sanford, Florida (Tuesday, January 30, 2024) - Perfect Game, the world’s largest youth baseball and softball platform and scouting service, has partnered with Beyond Sports Lab, a minority-owned indoor baseball facility in Little Rock, Ark., that provides baseball development to underserved children, for a series of special upcoming events.
On Sunday, February 4, Beyond Sports Lab and Perfect Game present the third annual Black History Baseball and Softball Camp, which media outlets are welcome to attend. The event will be held at 4:00 pm CT at Mills University High School. As part of the camp, children will be instructed on the fundamentals of baseball and softball, including batting, throwing, fielding and pitching techniques, along with proper stretching, by a volunteer staff of former and current baseball coaches and players.
Perfect Game will provide athletic apparel for all students involved in the event while also having Jered Goodwin, Perfect Game’s Head of Scouting and a 14-year baseball coach at the high school and Division 1 levels, on site for in-person mentorship and evaluations. Goodwin has coached over 60 players that have made their major league debut and currently works with several active big leaguers.
Beyond Sports and Perfect Game encourage participation by all children in the Little Rock community, regardless of their baseball/softball knowledge or skill level.
“We are thrilled to have Perfect Game involved with our Black History Baseball and Softball Camp,” said Jason Bradley, co-founder of Beyond Sports Lab. “The goal of the camp is for the kids to leave with a better understanding of the game of baseball, a sense of communal unity and, most of all, new friendships. We aim to bridge the gap between baseball and inner-city youth because if we don’t do it, then who will?”
“Perfect Game is proud to partner with Beyond Sports Lab on this initiative,” said Perfect Game Commissioner Dennis Gilbert. “One of our stated goals at Perfect Game is to get as many children playing baseball and softball as possible and the volunteers with Beyond Sports Lab share that vision of not only molding elite athletes, but elite people as well.”
“The mission of Beyond Sports Lab is to inspire children to be ‘major league citizens’ by providing resources and opportunities that will give underserved youth a sense of purpose and an elite mindset both on and off the field,” said Jerry Bruce, co-founder of Beyond Sports Lab.
Following this Sunday’s Black History Baseball and Softball Camp, Beyond Sports Lab and Perfect Game will present a youth softball camp in March to honor Women’s History Month. Details for that event will be announced soon.
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Media contacts:
Greg Casterioto / Gcasterioto@perfectgame.org / (267) 246-5709
Jason Bradley / Jason@beyondsportslab.com / (501) 310-2524
About Perfect Game
Perfect Game is the world’s largest elite youth baseball and softball platform and scouting service, producing over 9,800+ events, hundreds of thousands of games, and showcases each year across the country. Perfect Game is dedicated to giving amateur players exposure to take their game to the next level, whether that be in college or in the professional ranks. At Perfect Game events, players are performing with top-level competition in front of college recruiters and professional scouts from all over the country. Because of this, these events prove to be invaluable to college coaches as well as Major League Baseball, as they can scout a large population of talented ballplayers in one location. To date, more than 2,034 players that have played in a Perfect Game event have also played in Major League Baseball. Since 2003, 14,466 Perfect Game alumni have been selected in the MLB First-Year Amateur Player Draft. In the 2023 Draft, for example, 95 percent of all players selected had played in Perfect Game events, and every player selected on the Draft’s first day had previously attended Perfect Game events.
About Beyond Sports Lab
Beyond Sports Lab is a minority-owned indoor baseball facility in Arkansas that provides development to underserved children. On Feb 27, 2022, Arkansas Baseball history was made when Beyond Sports Lab hosted the first-ever EVER Black History Baseball/Softball youth camp in Arkansas. We had around 150 inner city kids, who showed interest in baseball. Our goal is to bridge the gap between baseball and the inner-city youth. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram