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The Lodi High School baseball field transformed into what felt like spring training in October for a brand-new T-ball league. The Lodi T-Rexes had their first practice on Sunday for kids of all ages who are on the autism spectrum. "My inspiration is Niko, my son," Jose "Jojo" Duenas, the founder of the Lodi T-Rexes league, said. "He's 3 years old, last year we found out that he was autistic. I was kind of looking around, seeing what our options [were] as far as sports. I couldn't really find anything in the immediate area of Lodi." So that's when, about a month ago, Duenas, a local football coach, and his family stepped up to the plate and started the Lodi T-Rexes. He was expecting about a dozen kids to coach originally. On Sunday, 52 athletes showed up. "My son, I wanted him to have a good experience," Duenas said. "And for people like my wife, there's some parents out there that really struggle. I'm doing this for them. I want to get them the opportunity to celebrate their kids, I'm doing it for the parents and the athletes. That's all I need. Just the 'thank yous' of the smiles on people's faces, some of the parents sharing their stories, what they go through every day. That's all the motivation I need besides my son. So, yeah, it's been beautiful." Duenas met with applied behavior analysis therapists and local baseball coaches for insight. He held training for the dozens of volunteers to spread awareness ahead of the practice because he said, "Every kid is so specific." One of those volunteers was 9th grader Landon Camarena. His favorite part was helping all the kids, and he said for the families, "they're getting emotional seeing the kids having fun." "They deserve to wear a jersey and they deserve to be a part of the sports," Camarena said. Camerena helped at the hydration station. It was one of four stations set up for the T-ball athletes. The others were a home run derby, a throwing and catching area, and batting practice. Duenas said there were high school volunteers, even from rival schools, Tokay High and Lodi High, putting aside their rivalry to unite in helping by volunteering. Parents, grandparents, and loved ones filled the stands at Lodi High School, which partnered with Duenas to provide the baseball field, to cheer on their athletes. Jennifer Jurado was with her 5-year-old kindergartner grandson, Julian Camberos, now a Lodi T-Rex T-Ball athlete. "To be able to meet other people, other families in the community whose children are on the spectrum, is amazing," Jurado said. "In the autism community, for a lot of years, it hasn't been diagnosed-it's really coming in the spotlight now with acceptance and being recognized. It is very important for our children, grandchildren, our loved ones to be represented, and understood, and included." For Jhair Carmona and his son, Jhair Jr., it was a great father-son bonding moment for them. Carmona Sr. said his son means everything to him and enjoyed spending more time with him while seeing him have fun. "Support your kids and do everything that you can to treat them like normal because even though we know this sometimes is [a] struggle, we need to be patient and encourage our kids to be more involved with daily stuff and games like this," Jhair said. Duenas said there were around 150-200 people total that showed up for the first practice on Sunday and that even people from Texas reached out to him to inquire about it. He also said there was a family from Merced that came to shadow what he was doing, hoping to bring something like this back to their community. He said there is another similar program in Lodi, called Spark, offering soccer, but that it was hard overall to find something nearby involving sports to put his son and other kids with autism into and that it shouldn't be this way. He wants to take this eventually on the road and branch out to other communities to help with this type of league. An online fundraiser Duenas originally had is fully funded for this season and next.
