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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Diamond Jubilee Shadle Park Team Gets Equipment Back

Kara Briggs Staff writer

Shadle Park High School’s varsity baseball coach has recovered half of the equipment stolen from the school’s freshman team.

Anonymous sources tipped off the coach nearly a week after someone took the ninth graders’ personal gear from their locker room.

“I went out to a pick-up point and got the stuff,” Ron Brooks said Wednesday.

While ninth-graders identified their belongings, police and Spokane School District security officers continued pursuing the case.

On Friday, the day before their first jamboree, the boys will get back the equipment.

“Bats didn’t come back - they’re pretty easy to get rid of because kids don’t put their names on them,” the ninth graders’ coach Steve Roffler said. “Some of the really nice, newer gloves didn’t come back yet either.”

All day Wednesday, Spokane residents offered donations to help the kids. KDRK-FM listeners pledged $1,400 to the team in just 90 minutes. That includes a $1,000 pledge from orthodontist G.G. Schneider II, whose office is across the street from the school.

Rita Valentine, a Shadle graduate, brought in a bat bag, with batting gloves and socks that she bought for the team.

And an elderly man loaned his left-handed glove - the one he uses to play catch with his grandchildren. The left-handed players had been trading off using one glove between them.

“We’ll be able to use the donations for some of the kids who don’t get anything back,” Roffler said.

Jason Schrader spent the last year and a half mowing lawns and cleaning houses to earn the money for his $160 Rawlings Gold glove - one of the items that’s still missing.

“It’s something I wanted for a long time,” the third baseman said. The coaches have asked team members to wait until Friday to replace their missing gear, because more might be found.