Roaring Fork High School’s baseball team rosters over the decades have often read like a who’s-who of Carbondale ranching families.
So, it seemed fitting for baseball mom and rancher Cassie Cerise to come up with a way to honor that ranching heritage with this coming season’s Rams baseball fundraiser.
Team members have been out and about in recent weeks selling special-edition team jackets, featuring the unique cattle brands of many of the local ranching families.
The Roaring Fork Valley Co-op helped sponsor jackets for each of the varsity and junior varsity players to wear, and they’re now available for sale to the public as a way to raise money for the team.
Many years ago, when Cerise owned the Black Nugget bar in downtown Carbondale, she came up with the idea to emblazon many of those same ranch brands on one of the walls.
Twenty-some years later, a lot of those ranches have passed on to the next generation, including her own family ranch.
But times are tough, she said.
The ranching community lost one of its own last year: Matt Nieslanik, who was a regular face up on horseback during the family cattle drives through town and as a participant in the Carbondale Wild West Rodeo during the summers.
The reintroduction of wolves in Colorado, human population increases and ongoing threats to water resources are also putting extra stresses on ranchers.
“We just thought this would be a nice way to show support for those in the Carbondale ag community,” Cerise said. “Whether folks are directly connected to ranching or not, it’s a fun way to put a smile on some faces when they see their brand floating around town on people’s backs.”
The jackets feature 19 ranch brands, along with the Roaring Fork Rams and Western Slope League logos.
“We really wanted to focus on Paul and Celia Nieslanik and the whole Nieslanik family,” Cerise said.
Paul turns 90 this year, and their grandson Tanner Nieslanik, a former Ram and Colorado Mesa University baseball player, is a JV coach on the team, and their younger grandson Emmit is a freshman.
Cerise and her husband, Tim Fenton, have two sons on the team, senior Cole Fenton and sophomore Chase Fenton.
“It really paints the narrative of where our little town came from, and is still today,” longtime Rams baseball coach Marty Madsen said. “Even the kids who don’t have that background can connect to a name on the jacket. It’s a great way to bring the team together, and to build some pride in wearing that Roaring Fork uniform.”
Jackets can be purchased for $100, with $30 from each purchase going to the team to support their upcoming season, including equipment and travel costs.
Baseballs, for instance, now cost $120 per dozen retail, and Madsen said he typically budgets about $1,200 per year just for balls.
The team went through nine dozen game balls last season, and needs another 15 dozen for practices, Madsen said.
Roaring Fork’s Ron Patch Memorial Field is also adjacent to an open irrigation ditch — part of that ranching tradition — and foul balls sometimes get waterlogged and are no longer usable.
Bats are also quite expensive, and there are costs associated with field maintenance, Madsen said.
“So, every little bit helps,” he said. “It’s just a great way for the community to help out the program. And these jackets are really sharp looking.”
Rams baseball is scheduled to open the spring season on the road at Discovery Canyon on March 8. The first home games are slated for March 29 against Coal Ridge (double header), and the annual Trent Goscha Tournament — for which the jackets are expected to be delivered — is set for the weekend of April 4-5.
To order up a jacket, look for baseball team members at the remaining home basketball games (Feb. 22 and 27), or reach out to Cerise via email at cerise81623@gmail.com or by phone at 970-309-3142, or Madsen at 970-319-5994.