479 NEWS
2019 Kickball Winners
Last month Local 479’s Young Workers Committee hosted the 5th Annual Charity Kickball Tournament in the city of Atlanta, raising more than $32,000 for The W-Underdogs.
“Including last month’s tournament the Young Workers have raised more than $120,000 for local charities over the past 5 years!”
Glenn Peison, lead organizer 2019 games
With more than 3 months of planning, 48 sponsors, 16 raffle baskets, 300 dedicated players, and one very, very special charity, we can all be extremely proud of everyone who gathered to help make our annual kickball tournament possible and to give back to our community!
This year’s contributions will make a difference for at-risk youth, teaching them how to care for animals and, in turn, how to care for themselves and have compassion for others. We’re pleased to report that 1 W-underdog was fostered from the event, leading to permanent adoption, and one kitty was adopted as well!
Re-Cap of the 2019 Charity Kickball Tournament
On a clear September morning, as the sun inched higher into the sky, players took to the fields to stretch in anticipation of kickball battles to come. Kevin Cheatham, Chair of Local 479’s Young Workers Committee, called the teams to assemble under the covered basketball courts acting as basecamp for this year’s games.
IATSE Local 479 President Ray Brown then delivered an enthusiastic warm-up to all assembled, reminding everyone that the day had already been a success thanks to the money raised for this year’s charity, the W-Underdogs.
Everyone assembled for a group shot…
And then the tournament had begun!
Umpires explained the essential rules of tournament play to each team before the early placement rounds began, and once all the teams had established records bracketed tournament play began in earnest.
Basecamp: Raffle Baskets
As in years past, the raffle baskets were literally stuffed with donations provided by a wide range of terrific companies. This year’s prizes ranged from directors chairs to autographed Atlanta United gear all the way down to a genuine Squatty Potty!
Safe in the shade at Basecamp, a steady stream of players and attendees purchased tickets for the baskets, with all proceeds going directly to The W-Underdogs. By the end of the day more than $2,300 was generated by the raffle baskets.
With temperatures hovering in the high 80s the water station beside the scoreboard was arguably the busiest tent of the day. Kevin Cheatham kept a running update on the PA to announce new matches, bracket wins, and to announce the winners of raffle baskets.
The Mekhail Brothers had their grill fired up and served teams in waves, as players rotated on and off the field.
Final Schedule & Brackets
Here’s a list of all the days matches, with scores.
and the final brackets…
Round 1
Field 1
The Walking Dead beat the Tailgaters, moving on to face off against returning 2-time champions, Get Scene Studios.
Field 2
The MacGyver team whipped the Free Ballers, moving them to face Da Great 728, a team of experienced kickball players fielded by Local 728.
Field 3
The Crafty Apes failed to defeat the Wallywood Rejects, who moved to the next round to battle the Madd Maddies, the crew from Sweet Magnolias.
Field 4
The Super Stars performed a win-ectomy against the team from The Resident, which took them to the next round to challenge Children of Thanos.
Quarter-Finals
Field 4
This game shared a similar outcome, with the Children of Thanos pushing the Super Stars out of the spotlight, to advance to the next round.
Field 3
The Madd Maddies exhibited tight gameplay, shooting down the Wallywood Rejects.
Field 2
Da Great 728 were considered the early favorite, but the resourceful MacGyver crew built a winning strategy using nothing more than chewing gum, a paperclip, and a 1909 Hupmobile. Also their feet.
Field 1
In hindsight the match-up between Walking Dead and Get Scene Studios was judged as one of the fiercest matches of the entire tournament.
The reputation of the returning champions didn’t deter the scrappy Walking Dead team, who surged from behind to tie the game in the 5th inning. Things grew heated as the game moved into extra innings. If the Get Scene wasn’t nervous they should have been, because the Walking Dead crew didn’t appear to know the meaning of the word “dead”. In extra innings a player from the Dead team kicked the ball long and just when it looked as if their team would come from behind to tie the game again a long throw by a Get Scene player nailed the Walking Dead’s lead runner on the foot seconds before he could touch home plate. Get Scene Studios ended up winning the game, keeping them on track for their 3rd victory in 3 years.
Semi-Finals
The tournament was down to 2 matches:
Get Scene Studios vs MacGyver on Field 1
Madd Maddies vs Children of Thanos on Field 2
Shadows were growing long when the Madd Maddies defeated Children of Thanos, and Get Scene Studios danced their way past MacGyver’s wall of green.
Finals
The final showdown took place on Field 2, in the last light of the day. As one of the Madd Maddies players remarked just before the championship match, “We’ve just got to play our game.”
And what a game! With great pitching on both sides, and some fantastic kicking and base running, it was clear that 2-time champions Get Scene Studios had found a worthy opponent.
The tournament ended with the Madd Maddies driving a runner home, vanquishing Get Scene Studios 5 to 4.
There was much celebrating.
The Young Workers will soon add an engraved marker to the Carroll Cup to memorialize this year’s champions. Until that time a handwritten Post-It note marks the spot.
Team Shirts
Many of the teams took time to design their own custom team shirts, featured below. (If we missed your team’s original shirt art please send a photo to [email protected] and we’ll add it to this article)
The Raffle Sponsors
Our terrific 2019 sponsors were mentioned in the pre-game article about this year’s tournament, please be sure to go back and read that list!
Thanks to Young Workers Committee co-chair Hilary Smiley for rounding up a terrific group of sponsors for this year’s raffle baskets! Provided below is a list of (most) of those sponsors and their gifts. We’ll add more details to this list as we get them.
