Cooper Salsberry's Spirit Lives On At Friendship Park Ballfield No. 3

Casey Stironek misses his friend and teammate Cooper Salsberry.

Cooper, a 12-year-old Oakland Township resident and Van Hoosen Middle School sixth-grader, passed away on April 14 after collapsing on a baseball field at .

Cooper has been , was friendly with everyone and passionate about playing hockey and baseball.

Casey, a 12-year-old Lake Orion boy, plays for the Lake Orion Diamond Dawgs and was on the team with Cooper. In honor of his friend, Casey recently wrote the Orion Township Board of Trustees a letter requesting that field No. 3 at Friendship Park be dedicated in honor of Cooper.

"It will help us never forget about Cooper and the great teammate he was," Casey wrote. "Also, as a player on the Diamond Dawgs, I also think it would be a way to motivate us to play harder and win for Cooper!"

The idea to honor Cooper by naming the field struck Casey one day when he was riding past the field.

"It just seemed like a really special place," Casey said.

"It's been tough but we know Cooper would want us to keep going," he continued about how the team has been doing since his passing.

After many tears were shed by residents in attendance and trustee members alike at Monday night's meeting, the Board of Trustees unanimously voted in favor of deeming the field a memorial for Cooper, noting a sign would be placed on that field in the near future.

Deena Centofanti, Casey's mother, came to the meeting with a stack of letters that teammates wrote in hopes that the Board of Trustees would dedicate the field to Cooper. Here are a few of the things Cooper's teammates had to say:

"You named it Friendship Park so people could make friends and have fun, Cooper represented all that," wrote Jon Haggitt, 12, of Lake Orion and Diamond Dawgs player.

"It would also make me feel better about playing on that field because I would know that Cooper would always be there cheering us on, and in our hearts. It would just make me feel happy that whoever we play there, Cooper would be watching over us," Zac Erwin, Diamond Dawgs player said.

"I really miss him and I have promised to play my best in his honor on both teams," Johnathan Marshall, 12, of Orion Township said, referring to the Diamond Dawgs baseball team and the Troy Sting hockey team he played with Salsberry on.

"Cooper was a great kid who was always positive and always had a smile on his face no matter what," Ryan Cooper, one of Salsberry's teammates, wrote.

"Cooper was a special kid. He was great at cheering people up and getting them motivated, and renaming the field would be the perfec thing to honor him by," Nick Butterworth, a Diamond Dawgs player, wrote.

Cathy Hopkins of Lake Orion, a friend of the Stironek family, stood at the meeting detailing the true value of dedicating a field. Hopkins, who said that she didn't know Cooper, has had a loved one, her husband Tom, pass away. Now, a field at Friendship Park is deemed Hopkins Field.

Along with Hopkins and Centofanti, Corby Carter of Lake Orion and Diamond Dawgs Assistant Coach Geoff Marshall spoke on behalf of Cooper at Monday's meeting.

Keith Stironek, Diamond Dawgs coach and father to Casey Stironek, was pleased that the field was officially approved to be dedicated in Cooper's honor. Stironek also noted that Cooper's parents attended their first game on Friday since Cooper's passing and the kids dedicated the game to Cooper. Patches in his honor were also sewn onto their uniforms.

"It means something, it becomes more than just dirt and grass and a fence ... the field kind of takes on a spirit of its own and it takes on the spirit of whoever it's dedicated it to and that's exactly what we were hoping Field three at Friendship would be ... it's going to become a place that has some meaning," Stironek said.

"Instead of being a place that's sad or where that 12-year-old boy died, maybe it can become a cool place where we celebrate this kid who was really a great kid."

Stay tuned to Oakland Township-Lake Orion Patch for more coverage of Monday night's Orion Township Board of Trustees meeting.