MIRACLE LEAGUE OF EDMOND
League Founder: Margo Price
Hello, I’m Margo Price. Through a lot of time, effort and heart I proudly founded the Edmond Miracle League.
How it works: The Miracle League of Edmond is an organization that provides an opportunity for children and adults with special needs to play baseball. Everyone hits the ball either from an adult pitched ball or off of the T. Everyone runs a base at a time until the last batter hits the home run to bring everyone into home plate. There are no outs and we don't keep score. There are 'buddies' for the players who need help playing the game. All ages play on Miracle League with the youngest being 4.
Why we do it: My son, James, played little league baseball through E.A.S.I. in Edmond until the spring of 2000. He had a very positive experience as a player and received lots of encouragement from his fellow players and coaches. James was ending his 5th grade year of school and he was 11-years-old. I knew he would not be able to continue playing baseball with children his own age because of his lack of skills. He was diagnosed with autism when he was 2 years old. I began the dream of forming a special needs league that next winter.
How it started: I had a meeting with E.A.S.I. in winter of 2000 and was able to gain use of a field on Sunday afternoons at Mitch Park in Edmond, OK. I then met with the Special Services of Edmond Public Schools to coordinate sending flyers to the special education students through their classroom teachers.
We had 10 students sign up for the 2001 season. I recruited some "buddies" from the high school baseball team so each player would have a helper. It was a successful start.
I continued to network and pursue more avenues to help build this program. After many phone calls, I was introduced to Robbie Robertson of The Sports Group. We joined forces in the winter of 2002 and began what was then the Adaptive Baseball League of Edmond (A.B.L.E.)
In April 2002 The Sports Group put together the teams and we had 20 players that season. We were still playing on Sunday afternoons.
The 2003 season brought 40 children to the program. We split into 4 teams and were still playing on Sunday afternoons with much success. We recruited more students from the high schools and middle schools in the area to help with the players.
In the summer of 2003 I franchised with a group from Georgia named The Miracle League. I began another dream of building a field specifically designed for children with special needs. We continued to raise money in the non-profit organization so that dream could become a reality in the next year.
Our 2004 season brought 50 children who wanted to play baseball. We knew we had to keep moving on our building project. The community volunteers have been a huge asset to the program and all together, we can grow more and more with each new season.
The City of Edmond gave me permission to build the field at Mitch Park. We will use one of the existing fields there to build our new state of the art baseball field for these children who have special needs. We will be able to play any day of the week and have much longer seasons for the children. They will also play at the same time as the regular little league in town and that will give them a great sense of belonging to a team and a program highly recognized in the community.
We completed our 2006 season. The field construction was finished in March and we began play in April. We had 5 teams with 70 players that year. Lots of volunteers from the community came to participate as buddies. Thru the use of some grant money, we were able to buy bats, gloves, and helmets for the players.
In 2014 we are still a growing league. After finishing the spring season, we now have 14 teams with 120 participants of all ages and all kinds of disabilities.
