This travel baseball organization’s mission is about much more than wins and losses.
Todd Zimmerman, founder and president of Fishers Falcons, wanted to create an organization with three basic tenets.
“I want to create a sense where the kids learn about community and giving back,” said Zimmerman, a Fishers City Council member. “So, one of the things we push for them is give back with service projects. The second thing is mentoring. I see a lot of boys in youth sports quit around the age of fifth grade because of a bad experience with a coach or parents, or they feel they just don’t have confidence in themselves anymore to play the game.”
There are three age bracket teams, 13U, 10U and 7U, playing in their debut season.
Zimmerman said it’s not mandatory for all players but the idea is to have a 13-year-old mentor and a 10-year-old, and a 10-year-old mentor and a 7-year-old.
“They meet up with one of the parents and have an ice cream, get to know each other and talk about what they like about the sport and have an older mentor there to encourage the younger kid to keep trying and to never give up,” he said.
Zimmerman said he plans to counsel older players that, as role models, they to live up to a higher expectation and conduct themselves the right way on and off the field.
The third part is teaching about the love of the game and team concept.
Zimmerman said the organization wants to highlight being in Fishers, so it incorporated the colors of the Fishers flag on the uniform.
‘We are wearing the Ronald McDonald (red and white striped) socks on Sundays to show our solidarity and partnership,” he said. “For every dollar we raise, we’re donating 50 cents to the Ronald McDonald House. If you were to donate $20 to Fishers Falcons, $10 would go to the Ronald McDonald House Charities.”.
Zimmerman is coaching the 13U team, which includes his son, Eli. His son Benji is on the 10U team.
