Home Local News Aidan Self Scores Winning Run in Championship Game

Aidan Self Scores Winning Run in Championship Game

Aidan Self - Scored Winning Run in Championship Game
Photo by Amy Guinn

ROCKINGHAM – Aidan Self sees himself in much the same way as does any other 8-year-old, and his love of sports is typical of a boy his age. His favorite baseball team is the Atlanta Braves and he likes to research facts about different baseball stadiums. He hopes to be able to travel in the near future to the new Braves SunTrust Stadium to watch the team play.

He has played baseball, soccer and basketball in recreation leagues. 

Aidan does have some health issues that set him apart from his teammates, but according to his mother, Brooke Self, it’s these issues that make his teammates even more encouraging of Aidan when he plays.  

Born three months premature, Aidan has had some sizable health issues to overcome.   He has “slight cerebral palsy and is a high functioning autistic child,” according to Brooke.  Confined to the hospital at Duke for 59 days after birth, there were times when the doctors weren’t very encouraging about his future.  Brooke says he is “a miracle baby.”  Cerebral palsy is a condition that affects muscle movement and coordination, both of which baseball players need if they are to be effective. 

In the recent championship game of the Rockingham Parks & Rec 8 & Under League, with the score tied at 15 in extra-inning play, Aidan came up to bat and got a base hit and, with an overthrow at first, his coach sent him to second base which put him in scoring position.  The teammates batting after him got base hits as well and advanced Aidan all the way around to home plate, helping him cross the plate as the winning run! 

Well aware of the team work necessary in the game of baseball, Aidan observed that if the other players had not had base hits after he got on base, he would not have scored. 

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One of the team’s coaches, Evan Roller, said that Aidan is the type of player a coach wants.  “He always hustled, no matter what,” and he was always encouraging the other players, and even the coaches themselves.  Evan was delighted to see Aidan cross the plate with the winning run; he and the other parents were touched by the special moment for Aidan. 

One of the other players on the team is Carson Knight and his mother, Donna, said, “The coaches were amazing under pressure.  They kept their composure and showed true sportsmanship.  They are the type of men you want your children to look up to.” 

The team’s sponsor, Larry Dunn of Dunn Builders, was thrilled as well with Aidan scoring the winning run.  He called it a “life changing moment” for Aidan.  Having been to most of the regular season games and all of the championship tournament, Dunn was able to enjoy watching “his” team play.   He says he likes to “help the kids” by sponsoring a team.  It should also be noted that Dunn personally absorbed expenses over and above the basic sponsorship costs and was anxious to ensure media coverage for the team and Aidan.  

But that night, and the days since, have all belonged to Aidan; that one fleeting moment in time has provided him – and everyone else who witnessed it – a memory that shall never be forgotten.

 



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