Darien Swarm Play In Paradise

When youth baseball players hit the age of 12, many teams across the country make the trek to baseball’s Mecca, Cooperstown, N.Y., for a summer tournament.

But baseball Hall of Famer Cal Ripken, Jr., and his brother, former big leaguer Billy Ripken, created a more family-friendly environment in Myrtle Beach, S.C.: The Ripken Experience.

Recently, the Darien Swarm’s U12 team spent a week in paradise, playing games every day and spending time together at water parks, on go-carts, at movies and more.

“It’s kind of customary to go to Cooperstown for U12,” said Darien Swarm President Tony Lopez. “We wanted to go to a more family environment. We wanted it to be more than just baseball.”

While the activities off the field were fun for all, the experience of playing against teams from across the country on the special fields at the Ripken Experience is something the kids will never forget.

The fields are designed after historic parks such as the Polo Grounds in New York. They’re scaled down to youth dimensions, but they mimic the characteristics that each historic field exhibited, with information for the kids to read about the parks.

The main difference, however, is that all of the fields use synthetic turf. Add in public address announcers calling the names of the players when they step to the plate, and the kids received a big league experience.

“It was all turf and the boys loved it,” Lopez said. “It’s a great surface for playing and sliding. You could see their level of play increase and the starry-eyed look on their faces. The facilities were top-notch. Whatever they needed, it was there.”

It was a unique bonding experience for the kids, as they were put up in condominiums together, with their families nearby but not in the same building. For a week, the players spent nearly every minute together on and off the field.

“We all went to the beach and the pool together,” said Christian Lopez, Tony Lopez’s son. “We got to bond with our teammates. When we had a day where we only played one game. We didn’t want to be done with baseball, so we went back to the facility and took batting practice. I’m going to look back on it and say that it was the best trip ever.”

Every family in the program went on the trip, which was the first of its kind for the Darien Swarm. Next week, everybody will reconvene for a party and the unveiling of a video to remember the trip.

Members of the U9 and U10 Darien Swarm teams should be paying close attention, because according to Tony Lopez, they will be back in Myrtle Beach next year.

“This is an experience that they’ll never forget,” Lopez said. “The team-building and camaraderie, even among the families, was great. It was just an awesome experience.”