South Jersey little league team honors fallen officers
NEW JERSEY (WTXF) A local little league team is honoring fallen officers. Instead of names and numbers on the back of their jerseys, they have the names of fallen police officers.
"A lot of people I don't think recognize the police as the good guys because like now a lot of people are protesting at them but they're the people risking their lives every day for us."
Sean Dougherty and his South Jersey Sand Sharks teammates are proud of what they did during their championship baseball game in Hershey last weekend.
Their coach Gary Brenner is too.
"The way things have been lately with law enforcement and all the tragedies we've had, we wanted to remember our brothers and sisters who have been lost," said Coach Brenner.
If you take a close look at the team’s jerseys you’ll notice something different about them.
"What we did was we went back and found some names of some officers and their badge numbers and put them on the back of our jerseys. We have a badge in mourning badge on our shirts as well as these thin blue line American flags," said Coach Brenner.
Each player's jersey has the name of a fallen officer instead of their own name. Coach Brenner says a parent came to him with the idea as a way to honor officers.
It touched Coach Brenner. He is also a 14-year veteran of the Galloway Township Police Department.
And it appears the fallen officers were with the team in spirit during the game.
"Our championship game we were down a couple runs. Last inning they said hey we're doing it for these guys and pulled on our jerseys and we came back and won it," he said.
The team brought home the trophy but what they did is about much more than that.
"It's all about teaching them the game of baseball but letting them know there's more important things than winning a baseball game. It’s teaching them life," said Coach Brenner. “And a big part of that is getting to the kids early and let them know that police are the good guys. We are there to protect you."