GRANVILLE, W.Va – While the West Virginia Black Bears may be the hottest team in the MLB Draft League right now, players and coaches took some time out this morning to host the first ever West Virginia Black Bears Youth Baseball Camp at Monongalia County Ballpark.

Bears hitting coach Jimmy Galusky organized the event as the camp director and says that building ties with the community through giving local kids the chance to take the field at the Mon is one of the camp’s biggest benefits.

“It’s nice to have kids out, you know. There’s not a lot of kids that can see this ballpark. Obviously, they can see it from the stands but not a lot of kids can be on it,” he said, “We don’t do a lot of Sundays where kids can run on the field and stuff like that so it’s just nice to have the Black Bears out here and the players and coaches and I think the kids really enjoy being out here.”

Adding to his inspiration for putting the camp together was the fact that Galusky is a local himself. After growing up with limited opportunities to get high level instruction in facilities like Monongalia County Ballpark, he saw this as his chance to give back to the community that brought him this far.

“This ballpark wasn’t here when I was coming up through so there was nothing really like this,” he said, “You were in the IPF doing West Virginia baseball camp so to be out here and give back to kids and talk to them and learn from my experiences, I guess, and the guys out here, Jedd’s been awesome to come out here and it’s just a cool thing for the kids.”

With a successful first go-round for the event, Galusky expects the West Virginia Black Bears Youth Baseball Camp to become an annual event with hopes of growing even bigger than it was this year.