In the semi-final game, the Royals found themselves down 6-0 versus the #3 seed Forrest Hills Bombers. In the bottom of the 3^rd, sparked by a towering 2-run shot by shortstop Brendan Clark, the Royals scored 6 runs to tie the game.  While holding the Bombers scoreless, the Royals went on to score 3 more runs on back to back homeruns in the bottom of the 4^th by Brendan Clark and Trey Martinez to win the game 9-6.  

The Royals wrapped up the tournament avenging their only loss with a solid 10-3 victory over the Syracuse Sports Zone.  The Royals kept up the offensive pressure throughout the Championship Game, leading 7-0 going into the bottom of the 4^th inning.  Scoring 3 more in the last two innings of the game, strong pitching and defence denied the Zone’s bats from a rally to assure victory.  

Selected by the Game Officials, Nate Hammond of Pasadena was awarded the Championship MVP throwing a complete game with 8 strikeouts.

“This team has been a small miracle, since its formation (the team was originally formed in early July to play at Cooperstown Dreams Park)”, said Team Manager Gary Bierc.  “Watching their faith, character and desire to play and win as a team has been nothing less than awe-inspiring to me.  I have been blessed to be called their Coach!”

By SEAN BURNS Staff Writer
Maryland Gazette

After two years of waiting, the Kingson Royals Youth Athletic Ministries program received its accreditation from the Anne Arundel County Department of Recreation and Parks last week.

"What we've demonstrated to the county is that we're consistantly fielding teams and adding different age groups to our program," said Royals president Gary Bierc. "We think it made it an easy decision for the county to go ahead and grant it."

With this accredidation, the Pasadena-based baseball organization will have a much easier time receiving permits for the use of fields, as they move up near the top of the priority list.

"The way the system works is, the accredited youth sports organizations are first in line," Bierc said. "Programs with that status can work with the county to get everybody a home field, where if you don't have it, you take whatever you can find."

The Kingson program is based upon the use of christian values in addition to athletic instruction to mold their players. In addition to Pasadena, the group draws players from Glen Burnie, with some joining teams from Linthicum, Crofton, Millersville and even Catonsville.

"We deal with people that believe in strong family values and virtues that they want to teach their children. Just because you're involved in a sport, you don't check your values at the door, we're about being strong in character and mind, as well as in sports," Bierc said.

"What's urgent to us is that these children have an absolute, undying love for the game. That's what helps a young athlete continue to develop to a high level, and when they are challenged down the road, that love of the game will continue to drive them to improve."

The reason for the delay in the granting of accredidation, according to Acting Director of Recreation and Parks for Franklin Cheney, was that the areas that the Royals cover already had established programs in place. In the two years since their inception, the Royals have had to demonstrate that there was a community need and desire for their program.

"We make the groups show us community need before we accredit them, in all cases," Chaney said. "Initially, we felt that there were already teams in that area, but (Kingson) showed that they have a stable and strong group of volunteers and they deserved this status among the other county programs."

Bierc says that the Royals currently field teams in five age groups, with roughly 60 children committed to their spring baseball program. When it started, the Kingson program had just two teams.

"From the start, we felt that we met all of the county requirements for community need, but the county had to make sure that we weren't just a splinter group that would have one team go through and then disband," Bierc said. "It's been a test of perseverence to find a place to play sometimes, but we've proved that we are going to be around."

Now, the goal for Kingson is to find a permanent home field, which Chaney says could be difficult.

"Most of the other groups are pretty cooperative with what's going on," he said. "As we do with all (accredited) groups, we'll work through the process. Needs for every organization change throughout the year, but we'll evaluate the parks and schools that are available and come up with a solution.

"We wish them the best of luck."

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PRESS RELEASE - The Kingson Royals Youth Athletic Ministries Inc. received Accreditation from Anne Arundel County Department of Recreation & Parks today. "KRYAM has demonstrated to the Department that it is not a 'spin-off group', fielding several teams over the last two years in both the spring and the fall seasons.", said Franklin Chaney, Interim Director of Recreation & Parks. "I am thrilled at today's news, giving God all of the glory and praise for this wonderful blessing.", commented Gary Bierc, President of KRYAM. "Today's blessing signals to the community that KRYAM is a viable and creditable youth sports organization and is a trusted option for the development of our young athletes. Parents should never again be concerned over the stability of the Kingson Royals organization!", said Steve Fowler, Vice President of KRYAM. Accreditation now enables KRYAM to permit fields and facilities from Anne Arundel County with a much higher status in the hierarchy of permit recipients. KRYAM will also now enjoy historical precedence on facilities it has permitted in the past, providing needed stability with regard to its home field location(s). "We have worked very hard to be faithful to God in building the ministry, fielding competitive ‘travel’ baseball teams, yet holding to our mission and vision, and demonstrating to others that we are a good citizen and neighbor in our community. Today's news confirms our good work has not gone unnoticed or unrecognized. We are now left, however, with the hard work of growing our program without compromising the values that made accreditation possible.", concluded Gary Bierc.

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By MICHAEL PIPER Staff Writer
Maryland Gazette

Ask a sports fan to make a list of the attributes most great athletes have in common and they'll likely provide qualities a bunch of sports cliches like a 'competitive nature' or 'a quick first step.'

For Gary Bierc, a former quarterback at the University of Delaware, however he sees another common demononator: balance. Only, Bierc isn't talking about physical balance, but a balance between life on and off the playing field.

"You always hear so much about the separation of church and state but most people in this country are church-going people," Bierc said. "We wanted a chance to teach kids the values you might learn in church while teaching them baseball at the same time. If you look at the great athletes, they all have that balance and a lot of athletes that don't, end up throwing their talent away."

With that thought in mind, Bierc, Steve Fowler and a group of coaches and parents founded the Kingson Royals, a faith-based baseball organization. The organization's coaching staff aims to teach core religious values - only those values common among the different sects of Christianity - while still fielding a competitive baseball team that teaches essential fundamentals and plays in the quality county leagues.

In keeping with Bierc's philosophy of balance, however, the teams will not necessarily play 65-plus game
schedules that many of the county's elite clubs will play, instead hoping to stick to two games a week and one tournament a month.

The organization - which this year features 8-and-under and 14-and-under clubs - also requires its coaches and players to refrain from profanity and its coaches to teach without yelling or berading. The style of some of the more vocal coaches in the area youth leagues was a main reason Bierc and Fowler formed the new organization... and a reason several parents who do not consider themselves particularly religious, have enrolled their children in the organization.

Fowler hopes the way the Kingson Royals will conduct themselves will set an example for some of the teams they play.

"We just feel there isn't any need for profanity and we just want to hold ourselves and our kids to a higher standard," Fowler said. "We don't want coaches arguing with kids or parents berading opponents or umpires. We feel like we have an obligation to teach more than just how to hit a baseball and hopefully that will set an example for some of the teams we play."

The league has taken a unique approach and to this point has been successful - both teams will play a full schedule. The upstarts have not been without obstacles, however.

Securing fields has been one problem. The way the county doles out fields is by distributing permits to accredited organizations. The organizations must first prove they satisfy a demand to a local rec council. The council either approves the need and recommends accreditation to the county, or denies the need and recommends the county deny accreditation.

The county is independent of the various councils, but generally takes their recommendations seriously.

Kingson applied to both the Northeast and Chesapeake rec councils and was denied in both attempts. The county then denied accredidation.

"It's a strange system because you have to provide proof there is a demand for your organization but there is no formula to prove you serve a need," Bierc said. "We've been working with a lot of the area churches and went in with the pastors of two churches who supported our idea (the three churches Kingson has worked with most are Our Lady of the Chesapeake, St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran and Faith Baptist), but we were still turned down. We feel it's a conflict of interest because of the perception that we're going to be taking kids from the existing organizations."

County Rec and Parks supervisor Franklin Chaney pointed out that Kingson, though it did not receive accredidation, still got practice fields at Old Mill and Elvaton Park. He also said there is a reason for the way the county has its accreditation program set up.

"We have a lot of different groups that want to start new organizations because they're not happy with some aspect or person within the existing organization," Chaney said. "If we are in need of new organizations, like we were with girls lacrosse 15 years ago, we'll add more. We can't accomodate everyone of these groups and with a sport like baseball, we're happy with the organizations we have. We feel they suit every need, so a new organization is going to have to prove it's more than just a temporary idea before it gets full accredidation."

Regardless, the group is up and running and expects to field at least three teams next season. Bierc said he has a coach lined up to take over his 8-and-under squad as he moves up to 9-and-under.

The league's obvious appeal is to the general religious community but it seems the Royals' schedule may draw some players as well. Mark Ellis, whose son Brandon plays on the 14-and-under team, was drawn to the league as much for the competitive, yet less stressful schedule, as he was for the lessons in faith his son may receive.

"We wanted to find a league where it was competitive but Brandon wouldn't be practicing every night and playing in a tournament every weekend all summer. We wanted to be able to enjoy the summer as well," Ellis said. "I'm sort of indifferent (to the faith aspects); it wasn't one of the main reasons we signed up. But I have no problems with it and I hope the kids can learn something from it. I've been to a few practices and I know (the coaching staff) knows how to run a team and I've seen more of the teaching about faith coming through in the last few practices."

It remains to be seen how the experiment will work out. The Royals have benefitted from the cooperation of several county and league officials as well - Lake Shore softball and Havenwood Softball have been particularly supportive - and Fowler believes there is a strong future for the organization.

"We're not trying to advertise and steal players from other organizations but we're working with a lot of the churches and we feel like we'll be much bigger next year," Fowler said. "I think (the Royals) offer a unique option."

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The 1st Seed, Kingson Royals 12U team went 9-1 in their recent visit to Cooperstown All Star Village. On their way to the Championship Game, the boys scored 109 runs, while giving up only 34 in 10 games, hit 16 homeruns (4 of them were grand slams), stole 109 bases and struck out 70 batters. They put up a respectable battle against the undefeated Teays Valley Viking from Ohio, but lost in the final inning 6-2.

Photo:
bottom/center: Troy "Broken Ankle" Kalkman
1st row: Andre "Mafia" DiPaola, Dante Villaras, JD Caulkins (holding team trophy), Joey "Puckett" Robinson, Neil Dudley "Do-Rite", JC "4 Fingers" Gunkel
2nd row: Koby "Lumberjack" Overstreet, Vinnie "Bones" Grasso, Nathan "Hammer" Hughes, Nick "Tomahawk" Watkins, Brad "Chipmunk" Bidinger
back row: Braden "Bob" Bailey, Coach Jim "Jimbo" Gunkel, Brian Parreira, Coach Rob Overstreet, Coach Ed "The Beast" Villaras, Coach Talbot, Coach Brian "Coach Positive" Caulkins