Doing their part to honor fallen police officers, a New Jersey little league team sported the names of boys in blue on the back of their jerseys during their championship game last week.
The South Jersey Sand Sharks replaced their names and numbers for names of fallen police officers and their badge numbers.
“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,” said Sean Dougherty, one of the young athletes, to Fox 29.
“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 Gary Brenner to the news.
A parent came up with the idea to honor the fallen officers in that way. It touched Coach Brenner because was is a 14-year veteran of a local police department.
Coach Brenner continued, “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.”
The spirit of the officers lived on through the game because the Sand Sharks came back to clinch a victory.
“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,” Coach Brenner added.
“It’s all about teaching them the game of baseball but letting them know there are more important things than winning a baseball game. It’s teaching them life,” he continued.
“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.”
Photo Credit: Fox 29