Leveling the Playing Field

Drew Hyatt is only supposed to run to first or second base after hitting the ball. But after his photo flashes on the scoreboard and his walkup song (“High Hopes” by Panic! at the Disco) booms over the loudspeakers, the 13-year-old can’t resist making his way all around the bases.

“He’s just a goofball,” says his mom, Karin. “He likes the show, and he loves the applause, and he loves the people. He’s always going all the way home and making a big deal that he hit a home run, and kind of flexing when he hits home plate.”

A huge St. Louis Cardinals fan — his favorite player is Yadier Molina, as he’s a catcher, too — Drew has been able to pursue his passion for baseball through the Gateway Region YMCA’s Adaptive Sports programming, which is designed for children and adults with disabilities. For the past few years, Drew has played baseball and basketball through the Y’s adaptive programming, and Karin says it’s helped him gain confidence, make new friends, and feel like part of a team. For Drew and other kids with disabilities across the St. Louis region, opportunities to participate in youth sports in a fun, safe environment can be limited, and the Gateway Region YMCA’s Adaptive Sports programming is helping to fill that void. 

“They just love it,” Karin says. “They’re always super excited to see each other and to be able to have the game and to compete. It’s just exciting to see them do things that everybody else kind of takes for granted, and do it with such joy and have so much fun doing it.”

Serving 13 counties in Missouri and Illinois from 24 different YMCA facilities, the Gateway Region YMCA is one of the oldest not-for-profit organizations in the St. Louis community. It’s also one of the few Ys in the country with a standalone adaptive sports department for children and adults with disabilities, offering year-round inclusive programming including sports such as baseball, basketball, and bowling as well as fitness, swimming, day camp, and overnight camp. 

The organization’s commitment to offering adaptive sports can be traced back to its five-year, $55 million capital campaign in 2018, which was designed to serve more people and innovate and improve its programming. While the Gateway Region YMCA offers its adaptive programming at locations throughout the metro, such as the Catch 22 Miracle Field at the Chesterfield Valley Athletic Complex, where Drew plays, the organization found that the St. Louis community had been under-resourced in adaptive youth sports — including a dedicated youth sports arena designed with all abilities in mind.

“It’s all based on meeting the community needs,” says Tim Helm, president and CEO of the Gateway Region YMCA. “That’s why Ys exist. We want our Ys to be in the center of community and we want Ys to be there to serve community needs and to serve people. It’s why we’ve served this community since 1853.”

In June 2024, the Gateway Region YMCA delivered on its goal of making adaptive youth sports more accessible in the St. Louis region when it opened the $5.2 million Adaptive Sports Complex at its South County location. The complex is a partnership between the YMCA and the St. Louis Cardinals and Cardinals Care (the team’s charitable foundation for kids), Boniface Foundation, and The Miracle League, and Helm says those partnerships encouraged the YMCA to dream even bigger. At the grand opening, for instance, every kid received a new glove through the Cardinals’ affiliation with Rawlings, and former Cardinals MVP Paul Goldschmidt — who has a field named in his honor at the complex — met with young athletes, including Drew.

“To find three great partners that wanted to amplify our work and believed in what we did to serve the community in a greater way is a really special thing to be a part of,” Helm says. “We’re so proud of this field and we’re so proud of what it does in the community. And when we decided to build it and we were designing it, the Cardinals and the Boniface Foundation challenged us and said, ‘What would it take to make this field the best of its kind in the country?’ And so that made us change our thinking from just building a baseball field to building a complex that’s gonna be accessible for generations.”

Helm likens the Adaptive Sports Complex to a miniature Busch Stadium, with its red brick accents, custom-designed synthetic turf baseball field, and a silhouette of the Gateway Arch in the outfield. The space also features zero-entry dugouts that are accessible to players with disabilities, a state-of-the-art electronic scoreboard to spotlight athletes, a concessions stand, and a spectator pavilion with capacity for 200 people.

“For kids to have that experience — really a big-league experience — to have walkup music, to hear their name announced, to see their picture on the scoreboard when they go up to bat … it’s just a world-class experience,” Helm says. “It just gives you chills when you see the smiles on those kids’ faces in getting to experience that.”

While the Paul Goldschmidt Field is the centerpiece of the Adaptive Sports Complex, it’s far from the only offering. The complex also includes an accessible high school-sized multi-purpose field for football and soccer, a walking and running track, and a zero-barrier adaptive playground that’s open to anyone in the community. Each athlete is paired with a buddy — a non-disabled volunteer — and Helm says the experience is just as impactful for the volunteers as the young athletes and their parents. 

“The difference we get to see in the lives of kids, families, and even volunteers, it’s just immeasurable,” he says. “The reaction of parents has just been remarkable in this … watching them beam with pride at seeing how happy their kids are to be able to participate and be a part of this. I’ve seen more teary-eyed parents since we’ve opened this — in a good way —  than I’ve seen in really any other program that we offer. It’s just amazing to watch that reaction and how that community has grown and felt supported through this process.”

As a testament to the work of the Gateway Region YMCA, St. Louis was chosen to be the host city for the 2025 Miracle League All-Star Game. The three-day event in September features a dinner meet-and-greet at Busch Stadium, a baseball tournament at the YMCA Adaptive Sports Complex in South County, and a celebration gala and awards dinner at the St. Louis Science Center. Over 100 athletes — including kids representing Miracle League programs in 26 states and Mexico, as well five local participants from the YMCA Miracle League St. Louis Chapter — will compete in the tournament hosted at the Adaptive Sports Complex. Drew will be representing St. Louis in the Home Run Derby, and during recent practices, he’s been hitting the ball over his family’s fence so often that his mom jokes they may have to move.

Helm says it’s a great honor for the Gateway Region YMCA to be chosen to host the All-Star Game in its first full year since opening. He hopes the event can serve as a way to show off St. Louis and everything that the historic baseball town has to offer, from world-class attractions to inclusive programming for kids of all abilities.

“To have the complex be part of the St. Louis community has been really special,” Helm says. “To build on that legacy of baseball in St. Louis, which is such a wonderful baseball city, to be part of things that families can take advantage of, like Forest Park, like the Zoo, like the Science Center, and to be part of that … It just means so much. 

“We are a major metropolitan area that was really underserved in this area in terms of sports and adaptive playgrounds. Ys exist to meet community needs. And this is a community need that we saw and, with the help of partners, we were able to meet. And that just is completely gratifying to be able to deliver that service to our community.”