A large crowd was on hand for opening day of Holbrook Little League last Saturday. The weather was great and the crowd cheered as six teams consisting of kids ranging in ages from 7 to 12 made their way out to Barrow Field to show appreciation to the John Barrow family. Barrow tirelessly served the youth in the community for more than five decades through the Little League program until his passing in 2004.
While reading a proclamation announcing April 13 as John Barrow Day, Mayor Kathleen Smith noted that Barrow was an integral part of Holbrook Little League for 52 years. “He contributed his time, energy and passion to the development of young athletes in our community and was nationally recognized when he received the Little League National Volunteer of the Year Award in 1993.” Barrow also announced the Holbrook High School football games for over 50 years and was a high school baseball umpire over 50 years. In 1987, he was the dedicator of the Arizona High School Baseball All Star game and in 1991, he was the Arizona High School Baseball Umpire of the Year.
John Barrow’s son, Leonard Barrow, was on hand for the opening pitch and talked about his father, noting that he was involved in Little League until he died. “He said on his death bed that the one thing he was most proud of was that he never had any of his Little Leaguers in trouble with the law.”
John Barrow defined the program for Holbrook, which in recent years has been in the hands of Little League President Brian Reid and the rest of the Holbrook league’s board including Peggy Reid, Mark Romo, Paul Agramont, Ron Eisle, Alex Baldonado, Kendall Bakurza, Johnny Jaime and Cheyenne Lester, who have shown their passion and dedication to the youth athletics program. But, as is common in the community, there are many other volunteers who may go unmentioned but their efforts are certainly appreciated as seen on the smiling faces of all the kids who use the field.
The ballfield will bring even more enjoyment to the community now that lighting has been added in order to host night games and tournaments. Although those lights are in place, they are not yet in operation but the City of Holbrook is working to have them ready to be used hopefully in the near future.
