COOKSVILLE 59ers by Chris Beebe

I just happened to be hydro-gliding into our lil' village in my newly acquired Citroen (it

floats on a pressurized pneumatic-over-oil suspension) to return a container to the Degners and saw a pickup carrying a pack of colorfully-clad boys drive off,  just leaving the ol' General store.

I stopped to inquire who that was,  always interested in baseball, wondered why they might stop in Cooksville.  One of the lingering parents of one of the fellas explained the boys will be returning and just left to get a photo.  They were hoping there might be a road junction sign south on Tolles Rd, one reading, "Cooksville, Hwy 59".    The team name on their jersey is COOKSVILLE, they call themselves 'the 59ers' and the logo has a stylized road, hardball and 59ers included.

How neat! I was thrilled there was a baseball team interested enough to visit as a team, hang around the G-Store, ... and have Cooksville used as their team name!

"How is it Cooksville was chosen and seemingly no one around here knew about the team?"  It was explained that parents in Edgerton who had boys interested in the game didn't have sufficient numbers to form a team. They reached out to Evansville and found the same interest and insufficient numbers,  so an agreement was made and with the numbers from the two towns, two additional fellas from Brodhead and Stoughton came aboard to make a healthy team, filling all the bases, as it were. 

The pickup full of the team returned and I met the coach, Mr. Dan Brown, from Edgerton.  He reiterated the melding of the two halves of the team from the two towns and how they formed a team, how the parents gathered enough enthusiasm, threw money into a fund to purchase jerseys, pants, shoes and ball caps wearing their style of the letter 'C' to keep anyone from thinking Chicago.   

Evansville, Stoughton, Brodhead and Edgerton are considered rivals in all school events so everyone involved with this consortium had to not only meet the outsiders,  but grow to work with them, have them become team members, ultimately friends.  He told me some of the struggles and how they had to work it all out.  The baseball season is over and some of the fellas will be playing against one another as several play football and the games are fast approaching.   I told him they ought to go to Israel and form a team recruiting members from Israel and Palestine. "This is what they could use !"

This is a Hard Ball league for kids of 14 years or younger.

Front row L to R : Standing Travis Zastoupil, Sitting Caleb Herbst, Wyatt Nelson, Aiden Maves, Standing Ethan Stengel.

Back Row L to R : Coach Dan Brown, Marcus Richards, Preston Schaffner, Tyler LaSchum, Carson Brown, Reilly Buehl, Ayden Vondra, Asst. Coach Mike Maves 

Not Pictured: Levi Ringhand, not in attendance