Members of the BCC baseball team enjoy a quiet moment together in Huizenga Plaza about 10
minutes before the start of the Maroone Rotary 5K Run/Walk on February 2.


On a delightfully crisp Saturday morning, the blue breeze that blew through downtown Fort Lauderdale Feb. 2 was BCC’s baseball team, participating en masse in the fifth annual Maroone Rotary 5K Run/Walk that started and ended at Huizenga Plaza, across the street from BCC’s Downtown Center.

Public-address announcer Joe Angelo, a Wilton Manors city commissioner, couldn’t miss the 20-plus BCC baseball players in their matching blue T-shirts. “We’ve got BCC’s baseball team here. Wow,” he announced to the crowd.

“We volunteered to do this as a program, and pretty much everyone’s here, except for the guys who are hurt,” said Bob Deutschman, BCC’s head baseball coach.

The players looked at the race as a chance to get together with their teammates and an opportunity for a little relaxed exercise.

“I don’t expect us to do all that well here,” said Chad Rose, a newcomer to the Seahawks roster. A pitcher and third baseman at McArthur High School, Rose is one of the right-handed pitchers for the Seahawks this season. Rose said he anticipated the team’s top finisher would probably be left-handed pitcher Hector Varas, who went on to finish 144th overall and eleventh in the men’s 16-19 age group.

Though their distance-running abilities might not have been exceptionally impressive, their baseball-playing abilities are, Rose said. The Seahawks opened their season on January 25.

“We have a lot of drafted talent on this team,” he said. “This is the best-talented team I’ve ever played on.”

The race wound through downtown Fort Lauderdale and along the tree-lined streets in the Rio Vista neighborhood. Proceeds from the event benefited Take Stock in Children, Rotary of Fort Lauderdale’s scholarship programs and other local charities.