This year, Montgomery County lost a pair of first responders in Wellsville Fire Captain Jeff Moore and New Florence Police Chief Tyler Beasley.

Beasley died on April 30 at his Columbia home and Moore was killed in a two-tractor crash on Interstate 70 between High Hill and Jonesburg on Aug. 3.

So, when organizers of the Montgomery County Backstoppers Kickball Tournament started planning for the second annual event that is scheduled for Oct. 3 in Wellsville, they decided to honor Moore and Beasley by handing out trophies that will be named after them.

The trophies will be awarded to the service players of the tournament, one firefighter and one police officer.

“The trophies were something that we were incredibly excited to be able to offer this year,” said Jes Schlanker, one of the tournament’s organizers and a board member of the BackStoppers. “Part of being able to offer those was the success of the tournament last year. Because we were able to do that, it was incredibly important for us to be able to honor those men.”

The double-elimination, co-ed tournament will begin at 8 a.m. The cost is $30 per player and each team must have a maximum of 14 players, including five females.

Last year, the tournament had 16 teams. County Kickers, Medical Mafia and Ball Sicarios were the top three teams.

“Most of our support were people from our own community,” Schlanker said. “We had a couple of people who commuted. We’re always open and welcoming to any outsiders of Montgomery County. It’s all for a great cause. It’s a whole lot of fun.”

Based in St. Louis, the BackStoppers were founded in 1959 and have helped over 180 families since then. In 2022, Montgomery County was invited to join the BackStoppers organization, which has helped plenty of families of first responders such as police officers, firefighters and EMS workers.

Proceeds of the kickball tournament will directly go to the BackStoppers.
This year’s tournament will have plenty of hardware besides the Jeff Moore and Tyler Beasley Service Player of the Year trophies. Schlanker said there will be enough trophies for every player on the first, second and third-place teams.
The tournament will also have a silent auction.

“Last year, we were very blessed to have area businesses donate door prizes,” Schlanker said. “It was a recommendation and request this year that on top of also providing door prizes for the players, we will also do a silent auction to recuperate some of the costs associated with planning and executing this project.”

The tournament will be held at Kiwanis Ballpark in Wellsville. Last year, the event was held at the New Florence Ballpark.

“Our intentions were to try to support all of the areas within our county that have the facility to allow us to have our tournament,” Schlanker said. “It just so happened that the Wellsville Athletic Association, which is still fairly new, has worked incredibly hard to better their field and it’s in awesome condition. They’ve done a great job and they also have lights. Last year, thankfully, we were able to start very early and end at a time when we didn’t need lights. But had we started later last year, we would have needed them. We’re anticipating a bigger turnout than we had last year and the lights will be in perfect condition.”

Schlanker is sharing organizing duties with Juan Raygoza, who started the Jonesburg Co-Ed Sand Volleyball League three years ago.

To register, contact Schlanker at 573-721-3195 or Raygoza at 636-368-2431. The tournament is also in need of umpires.