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Jimmies softball coach helping raise money for Tom Wilson bullpens

Maxwell O'Neill, The Jamestown Sun, N.D.
·5 min read

Apr. 17—JAMESTOWN — The legacy of Tom Wilson will forever live on at Lyle Lawrence "Trapper" Field when bullpens are built in the outfield.

Wilson served as a pitching coach for the University of Jamestown softball team for 10 years and worked with local kids in multiple different areas including softball, track and field, hunting and fishing.

Wilson lost his battle with cancer on Jan. 26.

"We finally got him on the payroll, basically just to cover his costs of driving over here," Jimmies head coach Kevin Gall said. "So it felt like here's a guy who selflessly donated his time and he didn't believe in charging kids for pitching lessons or taking them out hunting or taking them out shooting bow and arrow. He did it so people could develop a love for whatever they wanted to do and he was very knowledgeable and had a good positive way to get to young people. He did all that while going through cancer treatments."

Gall said he spoke at the Jamestown Parks and Recreation Commission meeting on April 8 and got approval for the project. Gall said he finished the application for the project in early March before getting approval at the commission meeting. Gall said no public funds will be used to construct the bullpens.

Funding for the project is continuing on the Support Tom's Legacy: Jamestown Pitching Bullpen GoFundMe page that was organized by former Jimmie Sydney Reif and the Jamestown Parks and Recreation Foundation. As of Monday, April 15, $1,450 of the $13,000 goal has been met, according to the GoFundMe page.

Gall said he hopes the project can start in June. He said the project would take about a month to complete.

Gall said the 90-by-50-foot bullpens will be placed beyond the left field wall. Gall said there will be a plaque hung up at the bullpens which will include a poem written by Wilson, but it is up to Wilson's family to make the final decision on what is on the plaque. Gall said he thinks Wilson would be excited about helping local kids with the bullpen.

Gall said the bullpens will be a space for pitchers of all ages to work on their craft and continue to improve.

"It'll give us a place as a community to take our daughter there and say here's where we're gonna pitch and you don't have to mess up the infield in order to do it," Gall said. "It's gonna be a place where if you're 6 or you're 16, you have a place to go to work on pitching. ... We can use that in a way where we can get in there and start teaching pitching and give them one-on-one instruction and coach the catchers as well in how to catch properly."

Gall said he put together a group of his alumni who were all positively impacted by Wilson, including Megan Neiles, Kassi Ward and Reif. After she graduated, Meghan Wenzel and Ward both stuck around and are part of the Jamestown High School softball coaching staff, allowing them to continue spreading Wilson's messages to the next generation of players.

"Meghan Wenzel, he taught her when she got to UJ, so the influence that he had on her, she's now bringing to our program," Blue Jays head coach Mike Soulis said. "It's kind of a continuous thing, it's branched off, his influence and his effects on other people are touching other people now and we're continuing to build pitchers in Jamestown."

Soulis said he first reached out to Wilson for help when he was starting the program in 2011.

"When Darin Peterson and I decided to get fast pitch (softball) going here for high school back in 2011, 2012, obviously we reached out and used his expertise into pitching because that's such an influential part or an important part to the game of softball," Soulis said. "So at that time I got to know him a lot better and more associated with softball."

Soulis said Wilson worked with his pitchers and catchers over the summer for approximately three or four years.

One of those players who worked with Wilson was Blue Jays senior pitcher Makenna Nold. Nold said Wilson taught her how to look at the bright side and bounce back from any setbacks that she might face.

"He impacted me in many ways," Nold said. "I would go to pitching clinics on Sunday nights and he would always be there with a smiling face ready to teach me anything I wanted to learn. He was a really good role model, he kept us on task. He was very kind, he was a really good teacher, I felt like I learned a lot of what I know from pitching from him. He explained things in a way that made them so easy to understand."

Nold won't get to use the bullpens, but she is hoping her younger teammates enjoy them.

"I think they'll be super helpful," Nold said "It's always nice to pitch off of a mound and see a real plate rather than just pitching in the dirt. So I think for the years coming up that they will be very appreciative of them."

The Jimmies announced on X, formerly Twitter, that their games on Friday, April 19, against Doane University will be their "Strike Out Cancer" games in memory of Wilson. Gall said donation boxes will be located at the Nelson Family Bubble for people to donate to the project. Gall said his team will wear pink jerseys and potentially pink socks against the Tigers.