Baseball standout following Manila family tradition

The "athletic genes" from Manila seem to be alive and well in one young man named Zachary Hoffpauir, of Glendale, Ariz. He is the son of Shannon (Sickels) and Doug Hoffpauir and the grandson of Wayne and Teresa Sickels. His great grandparents are Minnie Lou and the late Bert Williams and Dora and the late Moaten Sickels.

For those of you old enough, I'm sure you remember how good Minnie Lou's (Wright) brothers were on the baseball field. Then, there was his great- granddaddy Bert who never met a sport, whether it was baseball, basketball, golf, etc, in which he didn't excel. After that, there was his" Papa" Wayne, who played short stop on the l955 Little League team coached by Trigger Wall that finished 40 & 4, on his high school team and American Legion ball. Add his Uncle Albert into the mix, whose l968 Little League team coached by Joe Dean Pierce (a cousin) finished 48 & 9, and you have a lot of wonderful times on the baseball field.

Zachary is a 5' 2", 120 pound 11 year old who has just completed 5th grade. He plays on a Cal Ripken Little League team in Phoenix, coached by his Dad, also a good athlete. Recently, Zach received the game ball where he hit two home runs over the centerfield wall, had 6 RBI's and pitched 3 innings, striking out 7 batters. He leads his team in Home runs, batting average and RBI's. So as you can see, the love of baseball and sports continues on.