PEACHLAND- Jeff Horne has played baseball since he was old enough to hold a bat. It’s his passion for the game coupled with his love for the community that drove him to revitalize the baseball field at Peachland Park. This was done with both the permission of the town and help from local sponsors.
Horne is the coach of the Anson Raptors, a little league travel baseball team based in Anson County. “We’re ten-years now. Every kid on the team is ten-years-old or younger. Each August we’ll move up an age group,” explained Horne. He’s been coaching baseball since his son began playing in 2013 at the age of four. “I never thought of myself as a coach until my son started playing,” explained Horne.
Coaching came easy for Horne and he found he possessed a knack for it when he began volunteering to coach baseball at Field of Dreams, a baseball park located in Polkton that features three baseball fields. “A lot of the parents there seemed to like me. It even got to the point a lot of parents called me up to work individually with their kids,” said Horne, who added, “For about a year or so, I was holding clinics at Field of Dreams where I would just take a group of kids and work with them.”
The seeds of what would become the Anson Raptors was planted in 2017 when Horne and a parent of a boy he was coaching began thinking about starting a travel baseball team. “We wanted our boys to have more baseball than what they were getting. Recreational baseball is played just during the spring and fall,” explained Horne.
“Travel ball is different from recreation ball because you travel. With recreation baseball,you pretty much compete with teams located within a small area. Our recreational team at Field of Dreams, they’ll play a couple of Union County teams and that’s about it. With travel ball, we have the opportunity to take our team and travel out against more competitive teams anywhere in the South East,” said Horne.
The Anson Raptors was formed in 2018 and they began using the baseball field at Peachland Park. Horne started to fix up the ballfield almost immediately. “The bases there were almost buried. They had been there for so long they had sank in,” said Horne. Horne had the bases lifted and had fresh dirt put on the field, which he smooths out with a plow attached to his four wheeler twice a week. He has also fixed places on the fencing around the field that were bent and out of shape.
“I’m not just fixing it up for me, I’m fixing it up for all the kids to use,” said Horne “I have a batting cage in the process of being put up. One of my sponsors has offered to do the work as far as the concrete slab that’s going to go under it,” said Horne. Money and resources to repair and maintain the ball field as well to help finance the team come is made possible thanks to a number of sponsors.
“Travel ball is expensive,” said Horne. “We keep our entry fee low for these kids so we don’t have to turn any child away because he can’t afford to play. So, the down side is, you have to raise money because these tournaments are so expensive. That was the purpose of reaching out and get these sponsors to help out.” Sponsors include local businesses Four-A Loader Work, LLC, Concrete Finishing, Devil’s Rib Hunting Preserve, Liles Cabinetry & Interiors, Woodmen Life, and Auto World.
The Town of Peachland has been receptive of Horne’s efforts to revitalize the ball field, “The community loves it. More people have started using the park. The town has been really pleased. They rent the park for birthdays and things like that. So, of course, on kid’s birthdays the children love to go out on the field and run on it,” said Horne.
“It’s not about the baseball, it’s about watching these kids grow and mature,” said Horne. For him, coaching is more than just discipline and teamwork. “We care about the kids and how well they do in every aspect of their life. On our team I always make sure the kid’s grades are maintained. Their academics are very important to me. Their behavior at home is very important to me.”
