By Deseray McKinzy
The University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff Athletics department partnered with Academy Sports + Outdoors Thursday, April 1, to give Pine Bluff Northern Baseball Cal Ripken and Junior Babe Ruth baseball league a $2,000 shopping spree for new gear for their baseball programs.
The Pine Bluff Northern Baseball Cal Ripken and Junior Babe Ruth Baseball League is a home for Pine Bluff youth and has been since the Bath Ruth League Inc. began in the 1950s.
Academy Sports + Outdoors is partnering with the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff (UAPB) Athletics to adopt youth from the Pine Bluff Northern Cal Ripken/Junior Babe Ruth League for the Spring 2021 semester. To begin the mentorship program, Academy Sports + Outdoors and UAPB teamed up to make a special donation of baseball gear, including bats, tees, baseballs, gloves, helmets, and more to the league.
UAPB’s Assistant Athletic Director Kyle Hartsfield was in attendance along with UAPB’s Director of Community Relations Cameo Stokes, UAPB’s Assistant Director of Student-Athlete Academic Services Juwan Parker, and Shon Pilcher who is UAPB’s Athletic Academic Advisor.
Academy Sports + Outdoors and the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) partnered in September of 2020 to establish meaningful community initiatives within the SWAC organization. More specifically, these initiatives are to activate and amplify grassroots efforts, such as youth outreach and mentoring programs, that are inclusive of student-athletes and administrators from across the conference.
