Jonathan Breeden: [00:00:00] On this episode of The Best of Johnson County Podcast we have the Miracle League of Johnson County’s director, Monty McLamb. He is going to tell us a little bit about How the Miracle League was created originally outside of Atlanta in the early 1990s how he got started, Making a Miracle League franchise right here in Johnston County, around 2008, 2009, about the partnership to build a miracle plan that built them a field, a special field for disabled children to play baseball at Smithfield, along with a special park for children with disabled for disabilities. It’s also at Smithfield, right in part of the Smithfield Community Park next to the Smithfield Recreation and Aquatic Center and Triple S High School, and a little bit about. Why he loves Johnston County so much and how great Johnston County has been for him, his family, and Children with Disabilities in the Miracle League. So listen in. I think you will find it fascinating and you will also learn how you can get involved and help these children.
Narrator: welcome to another episode of Best of Johnston County, [00:01:00] brought to you by Breeden Law Office. Our host, Jonathan Breeden, an experienced family lawyer with a deep connection to the community, is ready to take you on a journey through the area that he has called home for over 20 years. Whether it’s a deep dive into the love locals have for the county or unraveling the complexities of family law, Best of Johnston County presents an authentic slice of this unique community.
Jonathan Breeden: Hello and welcome to another edition of the best of Johnson County podcast. I’m your host, Jonathan Breeden. And on today’s episode, we have the director and founder of the Johnson County Miracle League, Monty McLamb here to talk about the Miracle League, who they serve, what it is.
How you can get involved and a little bit about what he does in his real life as doing building supplies and logistics and stuff like that. It’s a fascinating, fascinating guy. I think you’re really going to enjoy it. He’s got a lot of energy and a lot of passion for disabled children that is great for this community.
And he’s done a lot of great things. But before we get to [00:02:00] that, I want to ask you to like, follow, subscribe to the best of Johnson County podcast, wherever you’re seeing it on LinkedIn, YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, or any of the other social media channels of the best of Johnson County podcast, the best Johnson County podcast comes out every single Monday and has been for over a year now.
So go back and listen to some of our other great guests like Butch Lawter, Johnson County commissioner chairman, Chris Johnson, Johnson County economic development chairman. Local dentist, Tim Sims, Miss Teen America, Hanley House. We’ve had a lot of great guests. A little bit of everybody have been on here talking about why they love Johnson County.
If you live in Johnson County or you love Johnson County as much as we do, this is the podcast for you. So keep listening and sharing our content so more people become aware of it. Welcome, Monty.
Monty McLamb: Hey, thanks for having me.
Jonathan Breeden: All right, no problem. I know we’ve been trying to set this up for about a year now. Tell the people. Who you are, what you do.
Monty McLamb: Okay. that should be simple enough. my name is Monty McLamb and I am, as you introduced the founder [00:03:00] of the Miracle League of Johnston County. it’s one of those things that just came about, you know, have you ever sat down and thought I got to do something and you just start rolling through things that doesn’t work, that doesn’t work well.
There’s a lot of stories we can get into, but yeah, it ended up being the Miracle League. I was a baseball coach forever, and so as my kids got older, this kind of just morphed into what it is. It’s a great organization.
Jonathan Breeden: Oh man. It’s, it, it is. It serves a lot of, a lot of disabled kids.
Allows them to play a, a real baseball game on a real baseball field. Right. With real uniforms, real coaches. Right. Yeah. It’s excellent. yeah, and we’ll talk about that in a little bit a minute. you’re born and raised in Johnston County.
Monty McLamb: Talk about where you grew up, where you went to school. All my life, Benson is the only place I’ve ever known.
I did pull some time in Raleigh for about five or six years. I call pull some time because uh, when you grow up in Johnston County, Raleigh is really not where you want to be. I went to NC State and so yeah, living right downtown Raleigh. But funny story, we went back to uh, Hillsborough Street and all just a couple of years ago riding to the state [00:04:00] fair and my wife and I were just looking around like Oh my gosh, I was back there in the late 80s.
And so we’re riding around looking at downtown Raleigh We’re like, okay, this isn’t how we remember. No, I’m glad to be in Johnston County. I will forever be in Johnston County
Jonathan Breeden: No, it is. It’s different and and I still go to Hillsborough Street to get my hair cut. I went to NC State in the mid nineties and I still go to, I still go to get my haircut.
So every month I drive down Hillsborough street and every month a business closes in a different business opens in the same building,
Jonathan Breeden: right? In the same building. And of course they. tore down the bowling alley and put in a target. and brothers and, and the two guys pizza or brothers is gone and the pizza is gone.
Jonathan Breeden: Mitch’s tavern is still there remodeled and reopened. so anyway, they would glad to have you there. Players retreat is still there. my dad worked at players retreat back in the sixties when he was in college. So yeah, be careful. Yeah. Right. No, it is. Yeah. So anyway, but yeah, so, I think you ended up getting into the building supply business, I think.
Monty McLamb: Right. Yeah. That’s all I’ve ever known. is [00:05:00] building materials, construction, that side, real estate, everything. That’s really all I’ve ever known. my dad, worked in it, his life. His dad was a carpenter. my dad was in building supply sales and him and a group of investors, started a business back in 1982. That happened to be my freshman year in high school. So. You know, everybody needs a job. So that was my summer job. So when I was 14 years old and, that summer job left to go to NC state was there, work with a contractor in Raleigh for a year and a position came open in sales in this company or in my dad’s company and, you know, one thing led to another and, and there I was.
I’ve been there ever since. Right. That’s kind of all I know. Right. Well, what’s the name of the company? it was Interstate Distributors. Just recently, my dad and the other owners retired, and at that time they sold out to a company called Building Material Distributors out of Sacramento, California.
Great company. Just, I was scared to death. I was like, oh my gosh, here comes a big company that’s going to buy us out and they’re going to put their thumb down. But no, it’s an awesome company. Oh, that’s great. Yep.
Jonathan Breeden: So who, [00:06:00] who, who are your ideal clients?
Monty McLamb: Who do you sell to? we are a wholesale distributor.
We sell to retail lumber yards, brick yards, masonry. I tell everybody it’s the Lowe’s type places.
Jonathan Breeden: Oh, okay.
Monty McLamb: You sell to
Jonathan Breeden: like Lowe’s, Home Depot.
Monty McLamb: Well, our primary customer is your local hometown building supply place. like Hudson’s hardware and plates? Hudson’s hardware. Uh, gosh. Old town, old town supply in Clayton. A lot of, gosh, what are some of the, uh, if it’s a local building plan, hardware store, they’re probably in our database. What about ACE? Those are smaller, more local than some of the bigger ones. I’m glad you mentioned that. We’ve actually. broker to deal with all the ACE hardware stores just recently.
So ACE has its own buying co op, but we’ve gone in there and we’ve kind of partnered with the ACE. So yeah, the ACE stores can buy from us as well with the same deals that they’re getting from their ACE buying co op.
Jonathan Breeden: Well, that’s great. I mean, and it’s all about buying in [00:07:00] bulk and what price they can get per capita.
That’s what they’re about.
Monty McLamb: And what we like about it, it keeps it local. I mean,
Jonathan Breeden: correct.
Monty McLamb: Yeah.
Jonathan Breeden: Well, and Ace, and Ace has a local franchisee model. Exactly. and so their franchisees are in the community. In the community, React community. So
Monty McLamb: yeah, it’s a great deal.
Jonathan Breeden: Yeah. I know Ace itself is having a hard time, you know, as a company, but I’m hoping that all the local guys around here, I know several of them are going to be fine. And they’re going to be able to work through the issues they’re having. Yeah.
Monty McLamb: I’ll tell you what, 2020 kind of put a kink in all of us.
Jonathan Breeden: Yeah, well, it did.
Monty McLamb: Yeah, and it affected businesses all up and down. So, um, we were not immune to it. there’s still a few little things we learned, but things that made us better and stronger.
Just like everybody in the community. Just about every business had some impact. But, hey, we’re back better than ever.
Jonathan Breeden: Well, that’s great. That’s great. That’s great. On a new ownership too. So anyway, yeah. So, all right, well, let’s move forward to talking more about the Miracle League. we’re [00:08:00] the concept of the Miracle League, I think comes out of Atlanta in the late nineties.
Is that right?
Monty McLamb: It is.
Jonathan Breeden: Okay. Tell us a little bit about how it came to be. I mean, now it’s all over the country, but your understanding of its origins. Right. Okay. Really, it started the same way I started it here, but down a little town outside of Atlanta, there was a guy that was coaching his son’s baseball team.
Monty McLamb: And, um, they noticed there was another kid that was at every game, but he was in a wheelchair sitting on the sideline. and he decided, okay, those Kids are here every day. They know the game. There’s got to be a way we can include them. So he started on a little small league there outside of Atlanta and that grew into the Miracle League.
Now Miracle Leagues are just like a franchise model. Each community has a director that starts it out. Now the home I guess the home office in Atlanta, they assist you, they give you the model that you follow, just like a franchise would. They give you all, everything to go by. They help you with your, advertising and everything.
They give you the plan for the [00:09:00] field. So they do all of that. Now, each location is responsible for fundraising and actually construction and building all of that. So, That’s the way it works. So, and, and you mentioned now we’re all over the country. We’re actually all over the world. There are four or five different locations.
They’ve got two in Mexico, one in Puerto Rico. So it’s growing tremendously. I think right now they’re over 350 fields.
Jonathan Breeden: I mean, that’s, that’s tremendous. That’s tremendous. And, what does a field consist of? We, we have a field at Smithfield community park, right next to Shrack, right next to triple S high school at Smithfield. It is unique and it’s not like, any other baseball field you’ve been doing. It’s got bases and stuff, but it’s got all kinds of stuff for special needs. Children tell us about the field itself.
Monty McLamb: It stands out. It sure does. And we’re, we were very fortunate. Town of Smithfield gave us a little.
Track to land there right at the entrance. So you can’t miss us when you pull in to the community park there in Smithfield. And everybody is funny. They call me and they say, well, you know, there, there are a lot of fields out there. How do we know? I said, you’ll know when you see which one it is. [00:10:00] So the field itself is a synthetic surface. There’s a couple of different ways they’re built. There are two or three different surfaces you can choose from. Some are tiles that are laid down, but we chose to go with what they call them a trowel rubber surface. So basically it’s a. It’s concrete that’s poured out, you level the field, the contractors, they slope it so the water runs off of it, and then they go back over the top of a surface that’s a quarter of an inch thick, and they just, the guys get out there and trowel down a, a recycled rubber, basically little pellets, it’s real fine, but they do it in colors, just like a baseball field, so it looks like when you’re standing out looking like, it just looks like a really clean baseball field, right. They go and mark the lines, the lines are, White rubber the infields of brown rubber for the dirt outfield green rubber So it looks pretty good and it looks good all the time easy to clean. But the biggest thing is it’s smooth There are no rocks. So I remember when I was playing a little league That was our biggest fear when you’re young is a ball hitting a rock and you know You don’t know which way it’s going right?
I caught one right there one time So [00:11:00] but yeah, and these kids don’t have to worry about that,
Jonathan Breeden: right and does it Does it make sounds where the basses are and stuff? Like, does it have any Electronics on it where I thought maybe it had like the basses made noises so they knew which way to go.
Monty McLamb: Yeah Well, no, no, that’s funny.
You need to go to a game because okay kids Some know where to go, some don’t, that’s what makes it unique, that’s what makes it fun. But really what gets the kids to the right place are the volunteers. Every kid has a volunteer and when it’s time to go then, it’s shockingly, but the kids know where to go.
They know, they know first base is where they’re supposed to run. Okay. You know, you don’t have to spend a lot of time explaining the rules to baseball. I gotcha.
Jonathan Breeden: Yeah. Well, that’s great. Well, and the other thing is, because it’s a synthetic surface and because it’s smooth, it’s very accessible for wheelchairs.
So there, you have a lot of players who are in wheelchairs or that have mobility issues, whether they’re on, crutches or canes or stuff like that. So that, that makes it, makes it really nice
Monty McLamb: too. It does. And [00:12:00] that’s, that’s all thanks to the guy that started it outside of Atlanta. They tried three or four different iterations and this is what they ended up with, and so that’s now what they kind of push all the fields to, we actually started playing on dirt field because we just wanted to get the kids out there and get started. So when you go from a dirt field to this field, it’s night and day. Right.
Jonathan Breeden: So it starts in Johnston County and like. 2008, 2009? Is that when you started this 2010?
Monty McLamb: The idea kind of started percolating about 2008.
We actually incorporated in 2009 and started playing in 2010. And where did you get the idea from? so like I said, I coached my kids, from the time they were old enough to swing a bat, right on up to, so we’ll say five years old, right on up to out of middle school, they got into high school and my kids decided to Dad, I’m not going to play baseball.
I want to play football. So, here goes a baseball dad and his kid goes from baseball to football. Well, I’m not a [00:13:00] football coach, so I couldn’t continue then. Plus, they’re in high school, and you know high school coaches. They want the parents to kind of We’re coaches now. Y’all step to the side. so yeah, so I took some time off.
I took a year off. I realized, okay, I enjoyed coaching. I’m missing something. There were several parents. We played in Four Oaks. so the Four Oaks Civitan Club, they ran all the sports there at the time. We had a couple of parents say, hey, Monty, can you come back and, can coach our kids? I said, okay, I’m gonna go back for a year and just and go and enjoy it.
Had a ball, had a blast playing with the kids, having fun. But what changed for me was You know, I hate to mention the bad stuff, but parents have just changed when it comes to baseball. I mean, parent, every, every kid’s got a scholarship on the line at six years old. They know where he’s headed. And, you know, they get a little upset with some calls sometimes and some umpires, you know, don’t always get the call right.
And I’m like, you know, just let’s take it. Let’s let’s play fun. Let’s let’s be fun about it. And lo and behold, I was watching. I [00:14:00] can’t remember what I was watching, but it was a sports show and they did a little five minute. Deal on the Miracle League and uh, I thought that’s pretty cool And so I said well this may be a thing so I called up Diane who’s kind of like the director of the Miracle League now in Atlanta and I talked to her for a little bit So she looked up Johnston County.
She said wow She said Johnston County is she said just outside of Raleigh aren’t you I said we sure are She said this looks like an absolutely amazing spot for a Miracle League field Let’s talk. And so, we sat there, we met, I went down to Atlanta, I met her, I showed her, you know, they looked at all of the, um, demographics and said, hey, this is the perfect spot, we want you on board.
So, they sent me all the information, I started reading up, I talked to a couple of folks around Johnston County, they said, let’s do it. And so that’s when it was born,
Jonathan Breeden: man. Okay. . Well, that, that’s pretty good. I mean, from an idea and a phone call Yep. To what it is now. So, but you needed, you needed a field and, and I know that the Rotary Club [00:15:00] in Smithfield and several other groups got together and they did the sort of the fundraising campaign partnership to build a miracle.
That’s right. I know Chris Key who was on this, Podcast a few months ago. We talked about that program because he was very active in the rollery club and I heard him give the speech and play the video multiple times and chamber events and stuff. I was at, uh, I know Alan Wellens was extremely involved in getting this done. The attorney, former state Senator out of Smithfield. So tell me a little bit about, you know, did you go to them and say, I need a field. Did they come to you? How did this work?
Monty McLamb: that’s the funniest story. I say funny. It’s actually turned out to be great, In the beginning, you know, here I am, the one thing Diane told me, she said, okay, this field is going to be about 350, 400, 000.
And I’m like, okay, I can do that. This is Johnson County. And then about six months into it, I thought, okay, this is pretty tough to raise that much money, you know, by myself. So I was going around, I was talking to all the churches, the Rotary clubs, the Civitan clubs, any kind of group that was community oriented and [00:16:00] I’d give them a little spiel.
I had a video I showed, it turned out great. So one day at the Rotary club in, uh, Smithfield invited me to go show them, give them a talk. And so I did and everybody liked it. Well after that meeting, I met Chris Key. And Chris, they were trying to build the park. So that was their plan, build the park. We didn’t know anything about each other.
He didn’t know we were doing the Miracle League. I didn’t know they were doing the park. Okay. So after that Rotary Club presentation, Chris comes up to me. He says, you know what Monty, we got a problem. I said, what is that? He said, We’re going after the same donors. We’re trying to get money from the same people.
He said, um, if they give to me, they’re probably not gonna give to you. If they give to you, they’re probably not gonna give to me. He said, why don’t we put this together and make it one giant project? I said, okay, that’s an idea there. So instead of, you know, our budgets went from three hundred thousand to a million overnight. Well it did and what you’re talking about for the people not listening is
Jonathan Breeden: There is a special needs park, which is made for children [00:17:00] with special needs, with special playground equipment that they’re in Smithfield. Right. and that’s what I think Chris key was raising money for, initially before he knew about miracle league.
And at the same time. The town of Clayton was raising money and ultimately built a special needs park for children as well,
Monty McLamb: right? Right. It was kind of all coming together at one time. So yes, the park was the same surface, the same smooth surface, that kind of, we’re like, we’re so identical. It only makes sense for us to start working together.
And that’s when the partnership to build a Miracle Was formed.
Jonathan Breeden: Okay.
Monty McLamb: and so this is,
Jonathan Breeden: is this 2014,
Monty McLamb: 2015? I know. I mean, I’m going to say it’s probably about 2012. 2012. Okay.
Jonathan Breeden: Golly. I mean, I remember it like it was yesterday. I saw that video like four times. Yeah. I mean, as Chris went around, you gave presentations, I mean, you know, like it was, it was really good.
And, you know, and they work. I mean, this was not, I mean, when you listen to Chris [00:18:00] key talk about it, unless you talk about it, it became very clear to me, this was going to happen. It didn’t matter how long it took. It was going to happen. No doubt. No doubt. No doubt. And so, so this town of Smithfield gives you the land for the field, but they also give the land for the park too, which I guess they kind of run the park.
It’s part of their parks. Right. Right. Okay. Yeah.
Have family law questions? Need guidance to navigate legal challenges? The compassionate team at Breeden Law Office is here to help. Visit us at www. breedenfirm. com for practical advice, resources, or to book a consultation. Remember, when life gets messy, you don’t have to face it alone.
Jonathan Breeden: And so how long did it take y’all once y’all combined to go out and raise a
Monty McLamb: million dollars? Well, that was one of the Best parts that the miracle league did was working with Chris and the partnership to build a miracle. We brought a lot of the enthusiasm and the desire to make this happen. Not that they didn’t, but yes, they did. [00:19:00] But what they had also was a lot of contacts with grants and stuff like that, because they had already been doing that. And so that made it real simple for us. but yeah, we were fortunate enough, the Miracle League field and the park are now just across the street from one another.
So, kids can go right back and forth to either one of them. Town of Smithfield was great. it’s a funny story and I better not, I’m tempted to not tell it, but it’s too good not to tell. Um, so we went to a town meeting to get permission. You know, we did our presentation of what we’re going to do, to build the field and everything.
And so the town of Smithfield writes us a lease, you know, we’re going to lease you two acres to build the field on. Miracle League’s responsible for managing it. It, it was separate from Parks and Rec, but it was on Smithfield field. So they sent me a lease to sign and the lease was for a dollar a year.
So basically they had to have something, something financial to make it. Legitimate, but they’ve never asked me for my dollar. Yeah, I
Jonathan Breeden: understand. It’s same thing with the greater cleveland athletic association with the land behind the old cleveland school. Yep. [00:20:00] That 13 acres that we play sports on and I was on that board and I think it’s a dollar a year and I don’t know that the county’s ever asked us for that dollar as far as I’m concerned.
Well, and I know that. The special mayor anymore was a big proponent of this program and he still is to this day. and that’s great. And, the specific parks and rec, the guy who just retired was big as well. trying to remember what his name was, Tim. Well, now he retired, Gary Johnson, Gary Johnson.
Oh yeah. I’m thinking I’ve got his phone number, right? Right. I’m thinking of Gary Johnson’s nickname. Cousy, right? Yeah. Right. That’s how I knew it. He was big on this. No bigger, no bigger lover of children than Gary
Monty McLamb: Johnson. He has been instrumental in keeping this thing going. I’ve got him in my phone. I mean, and he knows when the phone rings, I’m asking for something.
Jonathan Breeden: So, well, and he did so much. And I really, even though he’s retired, I really should probably call him up because I mean, he helped start the target leagues, which is its own, you know, which is his own all star tournaments for softball and baseball. For rec kids, it’s not tight travel teams. It doesn’t cost [00:21:00] a million dollars.
My son was fortunate enough to play in some of those tournaments, with kids all around the state, and him and that team with Tarleton leagues did a tremendous job and it is so the not travel and we did travel ball. It was way better. what he did with those rec teams and the rec all star teams was
Monty McLamb: tremendous. if it’s a sports team through that part, through the Johnston County, it’s got his name on it somewhere. Well, even the fact that that part got built
Jonathan Breeden: and the fields behind it and the concession stand and the tennis courts, I mean, really now they’re going to put pickleball courts there. yeah. So that was great.
So back to the miracle league. Golly, I’ve talked to you all day long. Yeah, we can go down tangents. So, who are the players? what disabilities do they have? What disabilities can they not have
Monty McLamb: to play? Right. Well, we’re open to any kid with a disability, obvious. And when I was doing my research, there, at the time, it sure may be more now, but there were roughly 3, 000 kids in Johnston County that required, Extra help, they had special needs, they had other things, but the way the kids [00:22:00] qualify, if your child has I guess a modified plan, EIPs, what the teachers call them, if there’s any, IEPs, yeah, okay, I’m close, I appreciate it, yeah, that’s fine.
That’s bad that I didn’t know that. My wife’s a special needs teacher. but if they qualify for that, if they have a doctor’s note, basically explains the disability or whatever, they’re eligible to play in the league. what we’ve seen a lot of is the guy, the kids in the wheelchairs love it, because it gives them a chance to really Go and move without any request.
I mean, they get out there and go wild. the kids in crutches. we’ve had a few of those kids in leg braces. they love it, because they’ve got the help. And it’s it just fun to watch those kids get out there. We’ve seen a big increase in, autism. Autism rates, which the entire country has. but those kids.
I can’t say enough about our volunteers. they handle those kids. They enjoy them. They interact with them. and the biggest smile I get really and truly not just the kids or the parents, the way our [00:23:00] league is set up you know, when you take your uh, your child to a game Let’s say they play in the regular leagues, in a rec league.
You know, you go and your kid goes to the coach, you sit in the bleachers and watch. But most parents with special needs kids, they’re having to be right there with them the entire time. but when they come to the Miracle League, their kid gets paired up with a buddy. The parent goes and sits down on their bleachers, and sits there and watches and gets to cheer.
So, um, those kids really appreciate it, the parents really appreciate it, and we’ve actually become a community. the parents start talking to each other. They’re from different schools, so now they get to see other parents from other parts of the county. So now they start comparing notes and, you know, it’s really Sharing resources.
Sharing resources. That’s the biggest thing. Sharing resources. I’ve heard of the, oh, okay, you do that? Okay, great, I need to try that. So it’s really been beneficial for everybody involved.
Jonathan Breeden: Oh, that’s, that’s awesome. That’s awesome. And, so, do you charge players to play in this league?
Monty McLamb: Well, there, there is a charge. Right now, you know, I say this is our 15th year for 14, [00:24:00] 14 years, it was 25. but we have gone up for 40 to 40, per kid, but that basically buys your uniform and stuff during the season. but, I made the parents a promise. I say parents I apologize for having to go up, but if you pay 40 now You can play both seasons where it was 25 for each season now We’re doing 40 and you play in both seasons.
You play in one or two. So yeah, there is that small charge. We do have donors that regularly give money specifically slated for kids to play kids that can’t afford it. that money is there to pay their tuition. I guess or their registration fees
Jonathan Breeden: Well, that’s cool. That’s cool. So how many kids are in this league?
I know I know Um, you know, we’re we’re we’re recording this at the end of november. I probably will not run until February when your spring season is going to be starting at the end of March of 2025. you’ve just finished your fall 2024 season.
Monty McLamb: So how many kids are involved? I knew we were going to do this interview.
So I actually went and [00:25:00] look, we have, I went through My player list, and I think we’ve got right at 160 kids on our list now during each season. We don’t have that many, but spring season in 2025, I’m expecting probably 80 to 100 kids. fall season is a little bit smaller. We just finished up the fall.
We had 64 kids registered. So, we’re growing and I do have a personal goal of getting 200 kids. In the league we have four teams right now. We play we have two younger teams that play each other and two older teams my goal is to get to like six or seven teams So what ages are eligible to play in the miracle league right now at school age five years old to 18 or 19 depending on graduation.
We just tell every parents from kindergarten through high school
Jonathan Breeden: Okay, I got you and the games are on Saturday mornings, and the spring 25 season is going to start at the end of March. End of March, last week in March is usually when we start.
Monty McLamb: Okay, and then it’s going to go [00:26:00] through when? End of school, usually that first or second weekend of June.
Okay, so about 10 weeks. About 10 games, yeah. Okay. That’s what we shoot for. There’s a couple of holidays in there that we break for. But we try to get 10 games in our spring. Do they keep score? The kids do in their head. I’m just curious. We don’t have a scoreboard. We don’t have a running scoreboard out there, but I can promise you.
I promise the kids are keeping score.
Jonathan Breeden: They’re keeping score. I got you. I got you. And, does the kid need to be able to Catch a ball or throw a ball to play in the Miracle League?
Monty McLamb: Absolutely not. they don’t need baseball gloves. They don’t need cleats. They don’t need uniforms. They don’t need their own bats.
We provide every bit of that. I tell all the parents they, I get that email every year. Does my kid need to bring anything? I’m gonna have a smile. just bring a smile and ready to play. That’s all we need.
Jonathan Breeden: Oh man. That’s great. So how do people get registered if they have a child who wants to play in the league?
Monty McLamb: Sure. we’ve got our website, Miracle League JC. We got created there for Johnson County, [00:27:00] MiracleLeagueJC. com. And on that website gives them all the information they need. There’s two specific links on there. One to volunteer, one to register your kid to play. We’re actually updating that website now.
It’ll go to a single registration place where volunteers and players can register. Register at the same time. It signs you up for email and text notification. So we’re stepping up in the world just a little bit. Yeah.
Jonathan Breeden: And you need a lot of volunteers every Saturday. ’cause I mean, each player gets a buddy.
I think so. Right. So if there’s 10 players on the field. You need 10 players, you need 20. I mean, if it’s 10 versus 10, you need 20 volunteers to play a game.
Monty McLamb: Well, right. If you just go back to what I said, we had 60 players in the spring. So that’s 60 volunteers on a Saturday morning. So yeah, it’s a crowd of folks.
But I don’t know what it is about Johnston County, but the people here are ready to serve. We just have a great community spirit here. I’ve never had a problem with volunteers. I was just telling her earlier that when I first got started, I’d show up at the field [00:28:00] Saturday mornings, you know, just praying we had enough volunteers.
But now we’ve got people signing up. We got people signing up a year in advance to make sure they had a date to be there. what’s really good is I graduated from Campbell in 1992, not to age myself, but, With that came a few connections with the athletic department and 10 years ago, the baseball coach talked to me and said, actually Campbell ran a, Campbell has a magazine that they send out every quarter and I got a big write up in that.
So the baseball coach called me, he said, Hey, we want to get involved. So for 10 years, baseball or Campbell university’s baseball team has been coming out, but the news spread throughout the entire university. So now we have the baseball team, the basketball team, the softball team, lacrosse team, they all want to be a part of it.
So we’ve got a group of volunteers. we really like, Businesses to volunteer. They bring their staff. We had target from Goldsboro brought about 20 volunteer 20 of their employees out for a day We’ve got quite a few companies around the county that sponsor and churches youth [00:29:00] groups and just a Oh, baseball leagues, softball leagues, and a lot of high school kids, and I, I really appreciate the high school kids that come out, they take their time, you know, these kids are 14 to 18 years old, you know, they got plenty of other stuff to be doing, but they spend their Saturday mornings out there with these kids, and not only out of other stuff to be doing, so so obligation, but they’re having fun.
I mean, they go out there to have a good time and the kids really respond to it.
Jonathan Breeden: Now, it’s great. And I know Campbell has been involved me and Campbell graduate, graduated from law school there. I get that magazine. I read it. I’m still involved with the law school in a lot of ways and I’ve seen the pictures of those players that have been out there and some of those players That have gone there are now in the major leagues.
That’s right. Uh, Cedric Mullins, I think came out there, with y’all a few years ago. And I think he was there. I’m not sure, but I think he was. And now he plays for the Baltimore Orioles. Well, I know. Um, and then they’ve got that pitcher that’s going to be in the major league.
Monty McLamb: Gosh, what’s his name now?
I feel bad. He [00:30:00] just graduated like two years ago. He’s playing with the angels now. Right. But I know he was there specifically because we’ve got his autograph on a piece of paper. The coach looked at me and said, he’s going to be big time. So we, we went ahead and got his autograph. Oh, that’s awesome.
Jonathan Breeden: I mean, that’s, great.
And I know Campbell’s got a new baseball coach. Uh, and I’ve met him at him.
Monty McLamb: Awesome. He’s a great guy and he said, he’s the one that came out with him this fall. He said, we’ll be back next year.
Jonathan Breeden: Oh, yeah. That’s, that’s great. That’s great. And, yeah, a lot, a lot of great people at Campbell university athletics and you know, it’s a great university and, uh, I appreciate the education I got there.
I know you appreciate education. You got there, you got an MBA from there, right? Yeah. So anyway, well, cool. So I guess the last question we’ll ask you is the last question we ask everybody is. What do you love most about Johnston County?
Monty McLamb: mentioned it several times and you just can’t be a part of Johnston County and not recognize this community.
We have all the big, what I call the big town, big city amenities, but we’ve still got cow pastures. We’ve still, [00:31:00] we’ve still got farms. We’ve got, we’ve still we’ve still got people that, you know, Church on Sunday in the community all week long. You know, there’s, there’s still small town, big town amenities, small town mentality.
You know, we still love each other. We still want to work together. We still want to support each other.
Jonathan Breeden: I love it.
Jonathan Breeden: Oh, that’s great. That’s great. And your website again, miracleleaguejc. com. Miracleleaguejc. com. All right. If you want to get involved with Miami Glam and the Miracle League and all the great things that his group is doing, please reach out to him, sign up to volunteer, be a sponsor, go out, just cheer.
If you know any, any students that may benefit from playing in this league, definitely sign them up and if they are not capped out, they want to serve as many disabled children. And I can promise you, you will not go out there and not leave with the biggest smile on your face. You will ever have as you watch those kids play the game and their smiles.
It is truly what is right about Johnston County and what really is right about [00:32:00] America in a lot of ways. anyway, I would like to remind you to like, follow, subscribe to this podcast, wherever you see it. Also tagging your Instagram stories. Best of Johnston County podcast. Until next time, I’m your host, Jonathan Breeden.
Play ball.
Narrator: That’s the end of today’s episode of Best of Johnston County, a show brought to you by the trusted team at Breeden Law Office. We thank you for joining us today and we look forward to sharing more interesting facets of this community next week. Every story, every viewpoint adds another thread to the rich tapestry of Johnston County.
If the legal aspects highlighted raised some questions, help is just around the corner at www. breedenfirm. com.
