They Are Playing Up a Year, Playing Hard Every Game, and Playing for Each Other. Now the Simcoe Giants 12U Need Your Help.

Not every team wins trophies. Some teams build something better.

The Simcoe Giants 12U Tier 2 squad is one of those teams. And right now they need the Simcoe community to show up for them in a big way.

TKO Jersey Co has selected the Giants as a finalist to win hoodies for the entire team. The winner is decided by reactions on Facebook. The team with the most reactions wins.

Go react to their post right now at this link: www.facebook.com/share/p/1FcYupUPPa/

It takes five seconds. These kids have earned it. Here is why.

Playing Up and Never Backing Down

Let me put this in perspective.

The Simcoe Giants 12U Tier 2 team is playing their regular season in the Southern Counties Major division. That is the 13U league. These are 12 year olds competing against 13 year olds week in and week out.

If that does not sound like much of a difference, spend one season watching minor baseball and you will understand exactly what it means.

Their roster tells the whole story. Five players with two or more years of rep experience. Three players in just their second season. Four players brand new to the rep program entirely. This is not a team built to win a banner in year one. This is a team built from scratch, thrown into the deep end, and asked to compete.

And they have competed every single game.

Coach Josh Prues put it simply.

"To say the 12U Tier 2 team from Simcoe is the underdog team this year would be an understatement."

What This Season Is Actually About

At the start of the year Coach Prues sat his team down and laid out three goals. Not wins. Not standings. Not trophies.

Fundamentals. Fun. Friendships.

"If we win a few games along the way, perfect. If not, we learn from it and come back stronger the next game."

That is a coach who understands what minor baseball is supposed to be. These kids are 12 years old. They are learning what it means to compete, to handle failure, to pick each other up, and to show up every game ready to battle again.

And that is exactly what they have done.

"These kids are resilient and they don't worry about the small things. They battle hard and always leave the diamond with a smile."

The G.A.S. Helmet

Every team has a player of the game award. The Giants do it differently.

Coach Prues created what the team calls the G.A.S. helmet. It stands for Give A S** helmet. It goes to the player who left everything on the field that day. And it does not always go to the kid who hit the home run or made the diving catch.

Sometimes it goes to the teammate who walked over to a player who just struck out and picked them up. Sometimes it goes to the kid cheering loudest in the dugout for a pitcher who is struggling to find the zone. Sometimes it goes to the one who nobody in the stands noticed but the team noticed everything.

That is the kind of culture being built in this dugout.

Coach Prues described it himself.

"It is about building a bond between fellow teammates. A brotherhood as we call it."

And the motto he gave this team at the start of the season says it all.

"A relationship between brothers, a friendship like any other, built out of respect and trust, will always have each other's back."

Now It Is Your Turn to Have Their Back

The Simcoe Giants 12U have been selected by TKO Jersey Co as a finalist to win hoodies for the whole team. This is not a skills competition or a tryout. It is a community vote. Pure and simple.

The team with the most reactions on Facebook wins.

Go to this link right now and react to their post: www.facebook.com/share/p/1FcYupUPPa/

Then share it. Send it to everyone you know in Simcoe and Norfolk County. These kids have played up a level all season, competed hard every single game, and built something real in that dugout together.

Give them five seconds of your time and help them win those hoodies.

They have always had each other's backs.

Now let's have theirs.

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