{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"Williamston Stings: More Than a Game, It\u2019s a Community Movement","description":"If you\u2019ve ever wondered what it takes to build a thriving youth sports program from the ground up, this week\u2019s episode of the Hornet Hive podcast is a must-listen. Host Dr. Christopher Lewis, a proud member of the Williamson Community Schools Board of Education, sits down with Jeremy Mourey, a driving force behind Williamston Stings, to reveal how a simple idea grew into a beloved pillar of the community. The episode takes you back to the origins of the Stings in 2014. As Jeremy Mourey shares at 01:23, it all started when a few passionate parents realized there were no opportunities for their second-grade kids to play organized baseball. Undaunted by the lack of official support, they launched their own league\u2014with just 13 kids in the first magical season. Through the dedication of people like Jeremy Mourey, the organization now boasts 26 teams and serves 275 players, encompassing both baseball and softball. A recurring theme is the deep sense of community. Jeremy Mourey emphasizes at 06:18 that support from local businesses, volunteers, and families has been vital to Stings\u2019 growth. It\u2019s more than sports\u2014it\u2019s an experience that shapes young lives. Players learn about teamwork, resilience, and the value of effort, with special efforts made to keep participation affordable for all by organizing creative fundraisers like their annual tournament (04:24). No child is turned away for financial reasons, ensuring inclusivity and equal opportunity. The program isn\u2019t just about winning games. As listeners learn at 05:25, it\u2019s about giving kids\u2014from the youngest quick ball players to high schoolers\u2014the chance to play together, build friendship, and experience the pride of representing their community. The Stings have become such a fixture that their hats are the most popular in local schools. Looking to the future, Jeremy Mourey is excited by the influx of new volunteers, ongoing improvements to facilities, and innovative programming. The goal remains clear: give every child the chance to grow, compete, and create memories that last a lifetime. Whether you\u2019re a parent, community member, or just someone who believes in the power of grassroots sports, this episode will inspire you. Tune in and be reminded of what can happen when people come together for a common cause. Listen today to hear the full story and catch the spirit of the Williamston Stings! TRANSCRIPT Dr. Christopher Lewis [00:00:00]: Welcome back to the Hornet Hive. I'm your host, Dr. Christopher Lewis, one of the members of the Williamson Community Schools Board of Education. Really excited to have you back again this week. As always, every week I love being able to talk about the amazing things that are happening within our schools. To give you a glimpse inside what's happening that are supporting our students, helping our students in different ways, things that you may or may not know. And today we're going to be talking with Jeremy Mori and Jeremy Mori is highly involved with our Williamston Stings baseball organization and we're going to talk a little bit about the Sting, the Sting, Sting's organization and where it's been, where it's going and some of the history behind it to give you a little bit of a sense of this organization and how it's supporting our students. Dr. Christopher Lewis [00:01:06]: So I'm really excited to have him here. Jeremy, thanks so much for being here today. Jeremy Mourey [00:01:09]: Thank you Chris. Appreciate it. Happy to tell the story about the baseball and softball programs. Dr. Christopher Lewis [00:01:15]: So I guess first and foremost let's, let's go back in time. Why don't you take me back to the beginning and what inspired the creation of Williamston Sting's baseball. Jeremy Mourey [00:01:23]: Well, in winter of 2014 Eric Gensky, a known community member approached me about Mason pony starting an 8U league for young players and specifically second graders and was something that some of the parents decided that we wanted to do. So we, we went to the Parks and Rec and they said they couldn't do that. So we decided to start something. So it was with Jay Dittman, Chuck Kazublo, Cliff Hart, Chris Smith to name a few. If I missed anybody during the way here, my apologies. And we decided over a basketball banquet that we were going to start something. Chuck had a friend in the industry of his lawyer and found out through Curtis Zaleski that they had a 501C3 available for us. That jump started things so we didn't have to write that. Jeremy Mourey [00:02:14]: And then we started that first year with 13 players and had a magical season. We threw this team together, 13 kids and we went pretty far in the tournament and shocked some people and then yeah, so had a great season. The next year as we wanted to go into the next year we recruited more players to have three teams, got more involvement and that's kind of how we got started. And fast forward to now we had almost 26 teams. So that was 1012 fast pitch softball and 14 baseball teams comprising of 275 players. Dr. Christopher Lewis [00:02:53]: That's amazing. Now I guess as you look back to the early years and you look at today, how did the early years compare to what the organization has grown into today? Jeremy Mourey [00:03:04]: It's definitely blossomed with a lot of volunteer help. Worked with Coach Stanton back in the day, and then Brian Johnson and Ken Johnson were huge instrumental in helping steer, help us steer it along. You know, we made some mistakes in the first couple years, but we really, really tried to keep the fees really, really low for, for players. So we did a lot of community involvement with sponsorships from local businesses. And one of the key things that really helped keep fees low is hosting a tournament. As the travel teams went throughout the state team I specifically coached for five, four or five years, we got to see how things were done in other communities and how they fundraise and learned a lot through that. So much so, you know, our first tournament was, I, I think the second or third year we started. We had eight teams this past year. Jeremy Mourey [00:03:51]: In 2025, we had 46 teams come in from all around the state paying about $500 per team. But we've been known to have repeat customers because we do a really good job at this tournament of having good umpires, fun things that are engaging for the kids. You know, instead of a coin flip, we do rock, paper, scissors, and at home plate with players, we do MVPs that the opposing teams coaches select based on how kids play. Just really try to keep it about the kids. That fundraiser alone helps offset fees and keep the fees the same. We've had the same fees for almost six or seven years, so we don't have to keep increasing it, keep the fees low. Also, we have a scholarship program that we do, and over the course of our time, we've given $3,000 worth of subsidized funding for employers. So we never want to turn anybody away and make that a reason why someone can't play baseball or softball. Dr. Christopher Lewis [00:04:45]: Beyond the playing itself. What life lessons or values as an organization, do you hope that players are going to walk away from their experiences with stings, with playing in your community? Jeremy Mourey [00:04:57]: Our coaches, we have lots of coaches meetings, preseason, so we can kind of get all on the same page and figure out what's going to be best. What are new techniques, new ways to coach kids? If you look at the successes of the baseball and softball program in the last five years, I believe a lot of that has to do with the growth of this program. You look at any sustained program in any sport, we had it in soccer, we have it in football. Why couldn't we bring it to baseball and softball. And I think that playing baseball is a hard sport. It's not easy. There's lots of failure. You're really good if you, you know, get three out of three hits out of 10 at bats. Jeremy Mourey [00:05:33]: And so it's a sport about that. It's a sport about teamwork, working together, bringing the tournament to the kids. Our club teams that are not travel teams get to participate in, that's a little bit higher level and it's something that kids can kind of experience that they wouldn't have had we not had Stings. Another thing is to play other communities previously at the lower level, lower age groups. Everything was just done here in Williamson and Hazlett. Gives these families opportunities to go to Mason, go to other communities and play to feel like, give you that travel, like experience, but just giving these kids an opportunity that they never had before to enhance the experience. Dr. Christopher Lewis [00:06:10]: So as you think about the connection between Stings and the community, how is the Williams Teamston community embraced and supported the Stings over the years. Jeremy Mourey [00:06:18]: Not only financial with the local businesses. I think when you know, you go to the elementary schools and you watch Hat day, by far the number one hat worn by kids is the Stings hat. It's kind of like almost a little bit of a rite of passage here in town to be as part of the Stings organization. And we have different levels that are rec based club teams that we call and then we also have for the kids that are more advanced and that have a little bit more commitment, participate in tournaments and travel. We have that available too for tryouts. Dr. Christopher Lewis [00:06:49]: As you celebrate the years of service that Stings has had with our community thus far, what excites you most about the future of Williamston Stings? Jeremy Mourey [00:06:57]: The future is great. We have younger families starting to volunteer more time and take on some board positions. That's exciting to keep it going because I and Jay and the original people that we're doing this are kind of don't have kids in the program anymore and probably won't be doing this forever. So that's exciting. It's exciting to work with the school on the fields themselves over, you know, the time that we have been with Stings here. We've invested over $30,000 into the facilities from field resurfacing, dugouts, fencing, just trying to create a better experience for the kids and also have nice facilities that match the rest of the facilities in the. In the community. Also very excited about the. Jeremy Mourey [00:07:38]: We're looking to expand even further. This past year we our first high school team 15. You coached by coach Crane from Alma College. His kid was here in the community and so they did that. We're also looking to go down to the younger levels. And what I mean by that is kindergarten and pre kindergarten. Instead of having traditional T ball, we're looking to do this thing called quick ball. And if you can google it, it's a format that really helps that younger ages get good fundamentals, keep it fun and light and keep them active. Jeremy Mourey [00:08:10]: Because as we all know, five and six year olds are tough to keep wrangled in. And it's a very structured program that we're looking to hopefully launch this spring, if not the next 2027. Yeah. So that's exciting that we're haven't settled. We could have just kept one team going through, but we decided to really blow this up for the whole community to give these kids and families better experiences. Dr. Christopher Lewis [00:08:31]: Do you see any other opportunities to expand or strengthen the program over the next five, ten years? Jeremy Mourey [00:08:37]: Yeah, I think the biggest opportun is going to be we're running out of field space. And maybe that's another conversation with the administration down the road. But so much so this past year we've had to use a lot of Williamstown Township fields, rent those facilities because of running out of space for games and practices. You do 26 teams. That's a lot. It's rough this year a little bit not having the softball field available. So as it's been under construction. So that's probably a big opportunity there. Jeremy Mourey [00:09:04]: Again, I would like it to someday maybe get it where kids get to play for free. What can we do as a community and the small businesses and the folks in the area maybe get grants or things like that to provide this experience even at a lesser cost for families. Dr. Christopher Lewis [00:09:17]: And finally, if there. If you could leave one message for future players and families about what it means to be a part of stings, what would it be? Jeremy Mourey [00:09:24]: I would say it's a community based program. I think that, that the word community is very important when that, you know, if you. Again, if you look back to the teams that are currently fielding today at the varsity level, majority of these players played in stings at some point or time during their careers. Some go off and play higher level travel. But to have that base to start at a younger age and play together, I think that's a huge benefit to us. To be able to do that. Players get to know each other a little bit better. They get to play together in these other environments and build these teams as they march through their time with the schools instead of having all these travel teams and all these teams come together at the end. Jeremy Mourey [00:10:04]: I think it's really cool if we can keep teams together and have cores of players stick through throughout. I think it helps with the success and helps with the overall development of the varsity programs. Dr. Christopher Lewis [00:10:16]: Well, Jeremy, I just want to say thank you. Thank you for all the work that you've done over the years to be able to build Stings into what it is today, to be able to support our students, to help them to grow into the athletes that they want to become and to help our community in so many different ways as well. And I wish you all the best. Jeremy Mourey [00:10:34]: Thank you so much. It's been a pleasure and thank you for your time today. And. Go Stings. Go Hornets. It's awesome to again see the. The over time, the hard work of all the parents and volunteers pay off as we watch our. Our. Jeremy Mourey [00:10:47]: Our programs get better and stronger. I think at one point our softball program was not even fielding a JV team. And now it's come to fruition and now we're able to support those teams and keep kids playing as long as. As long as they want to. But given also helping us provide a good product on the field as well. ","author_name":"The Hornet Hive Podcast","author_url":"http:\/\/gowcs.net","html":"