The stars were out at Elkhorn’s Relevant Center to support one of EHS’s winningest programs: its baseball team. Head coach Kyle McCright and other baseball staff and parents organized the first fundraising banquet to help the Legion and high school baseball teams and to connect the teams’ storied history with newer parents on the team.

“Obviously, this was a fundraiser to raise money, but we also wanted to connect our current baseball families to the historical past of our program,” McCright said. “We were able to honor Coach Jerry Frerichs who coached in Elkhorn from 1977 to 2009 and former MLB pitcher Jason Christiansen.” Chistiansen played for the Antlers in the late 1980s.

Many baseball staff and parents helped bring this huge event together. To help organize the event, different committees were assigned to various tasks, including the decorations, awards, event, and food committees. On the event committee, Melissa Goldal, mother of sophomore baseball players Garhett and Gavin Goldal, coordinated all the committees and meetings throughout the event.

“We had several committees involved in the planning of this event,” Goldal said. “I would schedule the meetings for us all to come together and make sure we were on the right track within each committee.”

One way the team raised money at the event was through a silent auction. Throughout the event, the baseball team auctioned exclusive trips and tickets with catered food and music for everyone to enjoy on the side. McCright said the banquet raised $20,000.

“We had an online auction [with] items like a trip to Cancun, tickets to plays like To Kill a Mockingbird, Creighton tickets and a signed basketball, Husker football tickets, a painting, ETC [Elkhorn Training Camp] memberships, and several more,” McCright said. “We had a catered dinner, [we had] speeches from inductees and someone who knew the nominees well. We also had country music singer Cooper James perform live at the event.”

Goldal said she didn’t win any of the items auctioned off throughout the night, but she still enjoyed seeing everyone’s hard work come together. She said one thing that stuck out to her during the event was the tribute to former Elkhorn coach Jerry Frerichs and Elkhorn alumni Jason Christensen.

“These two men have great stories about their time at Elkhorn, especially Coach Frerichs. The baseball stadium used for most of their games is named after him. He is who helped that field and stadium come to be,” Goldal said. “It’s an incredible story that will forever be part of Elkhorn baseball history.”

Print this entry