Highland baseball coach leads local players, coaches to Dominican Republic for camp

Baseball has always been a big part of Highland coach Joel Hawkins.

And for the past 10 years, service to his fellow man through his Christian faith and baseball have been an even bigger part of it.

During that time, Hawkins has taken a week-long trip each summer to the Dominican Republic to help conduct baseball camps along with help from several American and Dominican coaches and players and former players.

The goal? To help bring the game and a life of faith to economically disadvantaged youth in and around the city of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

“We have been going down here now for about 10 years and we’ve been doing a spectrum (camp) to see what we could do (to help). We served out at a village out of town that was so bleak and we ran seven baseball camps out there one summer. We had about 80 kids in each camp and Alberto Felix would help us at the camps,” Hawkins said.

This summer, Hawkins took a group to the Dominican for the camp from July 10-16. Several local coaches such as Highland assistant senior legion coach Curt Barker and former legion coach Kyle Schmitt. Additionally, former Bulldog players Chad Barker, Kolby Frey, and John Walker, along with Hawkins’s sons, Blaise and Abe, accompanied him on the trip.

“My team of coaches was a really diverse group,” Hawkins said. “I had five young men that were either sons or nephews there who had a variety of baseball knowledge. I had three ex-players and one of their dads and they were great.”

Hawkins said the experience definitely had an impact on his coaching assistants.

“There were a lot of (wonderful) things that happened there that left them in tears,” he said.

The coaches also relished in sharing their knowledge with players who were aged 6-20.

“There’s so much our baseball guys can share just baseball-wise with these kids that are grinning ear to ear about playing catch with an American dude,” Hawkins said.

The camp started 10 years ago with just about 80 players. This year the camp was so big it had to be held at a baseball complex owned by Osiris Garcia in the town of Guarocano. Overall, 280 players participated in the camp this summer and Hawkins said the popularity of baseball in the Dominican is astounding.

“Baseball is a way of life (there) and it’s amazing because of the number of Dominican guys that are in the big leagues and the population (of the country) just isn’t that big. The percentage of players that make it to the big leagues ... they really do live baseball,” Hawkins said.

More camp info

Hawkins and his group of 17 with five Dominican coaches began their camp Monday of that week and it ran four straight days from 9-11:30 a.m. Then, after a lunch break, the campers would work out with the coaches on the field throughout the complex again in the afternoon from 2-4:30 p.m.

“We would work in the morning and then during lunch, we would meet with Alberto (Felix) and his Dominican coaches during the lunch break to plan what drills to run after lunch in the afternoon session,” Hawkins said.

Since there were nearly 300 campers, the drills had to be broken up into hitting stations, throwing stations, catching stations, and running stations to help keep order. There was also a Bible station for players to study bible verses.

Former Padre, Astro plays key role

One big help at the camp was the presence of former San Diego Padres and Houston Astros minor leaguer Rayner Contreras, who is heavily involved in community affairs in Guayocarano. Contreras helped get the players organized for drills and the players really followed his teaching and advice closely during the camp.

“He was very authoritative and he could get the kids’ attention very easily,” Hawkins said. “I was glad he was there.”

Hawkins said this year’s camp and trip were set up by Paul Byrd and Maryville Baptist Church, which organized and coordinated it with Garcia and his facility.

According to Hawkins, the camp’s main purpose has been to be of service and let their faith show through in baseball.

“We were really excited to serve these folks and our goal even back here was to have our faith show through what we do with the game back here,” Hawkins said.

Building faith, relationships

The group also was helping to build faith and baseball relationships with the campers and help Felix grow those relationships through the local baptist church he is pastor of. That was the most satisfying part of the trip for Hawkins.

“The idea was to connect them so we could help him in any way possible with what he’s doing down there which is very active, interpersonal, and very relational. He was very moved when he heard we wanted to help his little church and we got to meet his people,” Hawkins said. “His reaction to the service we were offering — that was the most moving part of the trip.”

Hawkins hopes to have even more coaches and players from the Highland area and other parts of the state to help him with the 2023 camp, slated for July 9-15.

For more information about the mission and 2023 camp, people can contact Hawkins at jhawkins@highlandcusd5.org.

This story was originally published July 25, 2022 at 6:58 PM.