"My inspiration is Niko, my son," Jose "Jojo" Duenas, the founder of the Lodi T-Rexes league, said. "He's 3 years old, last year we found out that he was autistic. I was kind of looking around, seeing what our options [were] as far as sports. I couldn't really find anything in the immediate area of Lodi."
"My son, I wanted him to have a good experience," Duenas said. "And for people like my wife, there's some parents out there that really struggle. I'm doing this for them. I want to get them the opportunity to celebrate their kids, I'm doing it for the parents and the athletes. That's all I need. Just the 'thank yous' of the smiles on people's faces, some of the parents sharing their stories, what they go through every day. That's all the motivation I need besides my son. So, yeah, it's been beautiful."
One of those volunteers was 9th grader Landon Camarena. His favorite part was helping all the kids, and he said for the families, "they're getting emotional seeing the kids having fun."
Camerena helped at the hydration station. It was one of four stations set up for the T-ball athletes. The others were a home run derby, a throwing and catching area, and batting practice. Duenas said there were high school volunteers, even from rival schools, Tokay High and Lodi High, putting aside their rivalry to unite in helping by volunteering.
Jennifer Jurado was with her 5-year-old kindergartner grandson, Julian Camberos, now a Lodi T-Rex T-Ball athlete.
For Jhair Carmona and his son, Jhair Jr., it was a great father-son bonding moment for them. Carmona Sr. said his son means everything to him and enjoyed spending more time with him while seeing him have fun.
Duenas said there were around 150-200 people total that showed up for the first practice on Sunday and that even people from Texas reached out to him to inquire about it. He also said there was a family from Merced that came to shadow what he was doing, hoping to bring something like this back to their community.
An online fundraiser Duenas originally had is fully funded for this season and next.
For any parents who want to sign up their kids to play, it's completely free and includes a jersey. All you have to do is message Duenas on the Lodi T-Rex's new Instagram page.
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