GREAT KILLS — The recently crowned New York state champs Great Kills Little League Nationals 10-year-old All Star team needs help to become the best in the region.
The team will travel to Rhode Island to compete against 11 other states for the Little League Mid-Atlantic Regional Championship — the biggest competition in their age group — starting on Friday, and parents started an online fundraiser to get the $10,000 needed to offset travel costs.
"Once again we have to stay in a hotel for a week, so it gets to be costly for families," said Camille Mainolfi, whose son Ty Mainolfi plays second base for the team.
"We are trying to raise money to offset the cost for families to make the boys' dream come true by winning."
The team started its season on Memorial Day and has practiced six days a week since. Their first hurdle was getting out of Staten Island and winning the division, which has traditionally been tough for teams to do, said coach James Speciale, 42.
"Their main concern when they started this was making it out of Staten Island," said Speciale, who played for an All-Star team for Great Kills in 1985.
"Just to get out of Staten Island, they were ecstatic."
The team then clinched the city title and eventually beat out eight teams in Rochester, New York, to be crowned state champions and get the chance to compete for the regional title.
"We've gone kind of further than anybody would of thought," Speciale said. "It's a pretty big accomplishment for Great Kills Little League."
When the 13 families had to spend a week in Rochester during the state tournament, Mainolfi said the bill for lodging, gas, food, entertainment for the players and taking the cost of taking time off work was challenging for parents.
So they decided to reach out online through GoFundMe for help, and have already raised more than half their goal since Aug. 1.
"It is amazing that through GoFundMe we reached so many different people locally and from a distance," said Mainolfi. "They're just so generous to try and help these boys."
Speciale has also reached out to local businesses to sponsor the team to help pay for the costs and has tried to drum up donations to the GoFundMe page.
"Two road trips for basically two weeks is a big expense for people," he said.
"Any fundraising, any support we can get from the community and the league helps out immensely."
Aside from the online campaign, the players went out to several stores around the borough to raise money. Mainolfi said they'll keep the campaign open during the tournament to continue to raise funds.
As for the games themselves Mainolfi, who said she cried when they won state championship, believes that her son and teammates have what it takes to clinch the title and become the first team in the Great Kills Little League to do so.
"They look pretty good," she said.
"They're a great bunch of boys who have been working so hard on and off the field together. I definitely think they can accomplish this."
