DAPHNE, Ala.—The City Council on July 18 issued a proclamation to the youth baseball team from Daphne. The team — which won the district 7 championship — will compete in Athens, Ala., later this week for the state title.

“This is the district 7 district champions. Now to get this far they had to beat everybody in their sub-district, which they only lost one game and when they went to district they lost no games, plus they were the leaders in the sub-district. This is a great accomplishment… not only for the coaches but for the kids. These kids really battle hard, especially in these last couple of games to get to where they are at. They will represent the city of Daphne in the state tournament. This has only happened twice that I know of,” Mayor Fred Small said.

Members of the council wanted to ensure that the team had enough funds to cover expenses.

The council voted 5-0 to appropriate $1,000 from the training budgets of the council members and the mayor to help the team defray travel expenses to compete on the state level.

Players and members of the community are also remembering a young baseball player who recently lost his fight with cancer.

“We had a young man who lost his battle with cancer who was in the AAA program, Tyler Trembley, but to recognize him everyone got together and we have insignias on our helmets to remember him by and we are taking up money and we are going to plant a tree and put a plaque, probably on a rock…in remembrance of him. Not only are we going to play and play hard, but we are going to go play for Tyler too,” Small said.