Covington Catholic Hosts Baseball Tournament for Autism Awareness

Covington Catholic Hosts Baseball Tournament for Autism Awareness | The River City News

On Saturday, April 22, Covington Catholic High School will be hosting the 5th Annual Drew Michels Autism Awareness Tournament, featuring teams from Newport Central Catholic, Dixie, Ryle, Beechwood, Conner, Highlands, and Covington Catholic. This is a J.V. baseball tournament in honor of our son, Drew, with all proceeds going to the Ken Anderson Alliance.

Drew was diagnosed with autism in 2010 at age 4. It is our hope that through him, we can help others with autism, as well as raise awareness of an epidemic that is now affecting 1 in 68 children and 1 in 42 boys.

Our event has been a success beyond our imagination and has raised over $75,000 in its first 4 years! For the second year, we are supporting the Ken Anderson Alliance, whose mission is to build a “live, work, play” community for the immensely underserved population of adults with autism and other developmental disabilities in Greater Cincinnati.

Like so many parents with children on the autism spectrum, we worry constantly about who will care for our child when we’re gone. For this reason, the mission of KAA is a very important one to us.

John and I realize how lucky we are that Drew is mild to moderate on the autism spectrum and is considered high-functioning. We know that not all parents with autistic children are so fortunate. For that reason we began Drew’s Puzzle Piece, Inc. and the baseball tournament to help others whose lives are impacted by autism.

The Drew Michels Autism Awareness Tournament will consist of 4 games, the first of which beginning at 9:00 a.m.

We will have children who have been diagnosed on the autism spectrum throwing out the first pitch prior to each game, including our son, Drew for the fourth and final game. The event will be an exciting day filled with baseball, food, and a large raffle table, including such items as an iPad Air, Samsung Smart TV, Reds Tickets, Kate Spade Handbag, Weekend Stay in a Pigeon Forge Cabin, Yeti Cooler, Weber Grill and much more! Ken Anderson and his wife, Cristy, will be there as well to support us on game day.

For more information including game times and teams, please visit our website, www.dppinc.org and our Facebook page. Please contact us via email at dppinc@outlook.com or via phone at 859.835.6158 with any questions.

John and Emily Michels

Editor's note: John Michels is the Covington Catholic J.V. baseball Head Coach

[TABLE=class: grid, width: 300]

[TR]

[TD=colspan: 4]JV - Saturday 4/22 @ Cov Cath[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]9:00am[/TD]

[TD]Dixie Heights[/TD]

[TD]vs.[/TD]

[TD]Cov Cath[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]11:30am[/TD]

[TD]Beechwood[/TD]

[TD]vs.[/TD]

[TD]Highlands[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]2:00pm[/TD]

[TD]Ryle[/TD]

[TD]vs.[/TD]

[TD]Conner[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]4:30pm[/TD]

[TD]New Cath[/TD]

[TD]vs.[/TD]

[TD]Cov Cath[/TD]

[/TR]

[/TABLE]

Conner will be wearing special shirts.

With the weather..... any changes to the schedule?

With the weather..... any changes to the schedule?

Playing as scheduled.

1st game

CovCath 2

Dixie Heights 1

In progress:

Highlands 6

Beechwood 4

Bottom 6.

Birds win 6-4 over Beechwood

Not over yet

Now it's over.

Birds 6

Beechwood 4

Cooper Schwalbach with a spectacular diving catch in top 7

Ryle beats Conner 7 - 0

Great pitching and timely hitting the key to Ryle's win.

Great time had by all for a great cause.

Let's give some love to the two umpires who worked for free for this. Tim Perry and Dave Epplen have been doing this for the last couple of years.

Let's give some love to the two umpires who worked for free for this. Tim Perry and Dave Epplen have been doing this for the last couple of years.

Strong work, no doubt about it!

Let's give some love to the two umpires who worked for free for this. Tim Perry and Dave Epplen have been doing this for the last couple of years.

There was actually a third umpire who worked these games, unfortunately his name escapes me. For the final game between Cov Cath and New Cath all three worked. You are correct they donated their time to this and for that they are to be commended!

Frosh games were all rained out today at Dixie. Even still, the event raised $25,000 for the Ken Anderson Alliance according to Coach Michels. It has now raised 100k in 5 years. That's incredible at any level but consider it's been jv and it's mind blowing. And that's with the frosh games rained out last two years and almost zero coverage from local media even though they've tried to get them to support it.

Congrats to all. Saw lot of former players up there last weekend.