WESTWOOD, N.J.—Before they could trade pins at Cooperstown, they worked the sidewalk outside Goldberg’s Famous Bagels. Before the home runs, there were fundraising tables, donated sports equipment, and a subzero Super Bowl weekend outside Angelina’s Italian Deli.
The Pascack Valley Venom made it—and brought our cheer and collective support with them.
The local 12U club baseball team, also known as Grit Venom, returned from its Aug. 10–16 trip to Cooperstown All Star Village with five wins, ranked 23 of 94 teams, and souvenirs with stories fluttering like pennants. Peyton Calonico and Mikey Phelan had home run balls. Chase Lambert had a photograph with former Mets pitcher Johan Santana.
For Ryan Smith, the team’s Hillsdale-based president and founder, the memories began long before the first pitch.
“You don’t give up as easily because you know you’re playing for the community and all the businesses that supported us,” Smith told Pascack Press in an Aug. 20 interview from the road.
For baseball families, Cooperstown carries a meaning far beyond the name on a road sign;, it is a once in a lifetime opportunity that only happens at the end of the 12U year. “It’s like the Kentucky Derby of youth baseball,” Smith said.
The upstate New York village is home to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, which opened in 1939. Its exhibits and plaques connect generations of fans with the game’s history and greatest figures.
The Venom played at Cooperstown All Star Village, a separate youth baseball complex in nearby Oneonta. Teams came from as far as Australia and Hawaii to compete, sleep in team bunkhouses, and share meals—a week that combines tournament baseball with the experience of summer camp. Skills competitions were a home run derby, fastest man, and double-play combination. Pin trading and a Hall of Fame visit add to the experience; All Star Village includes museum admission for players and coaches.
For a team that spent months preparing, the week became a milestone in growing up together. Pascack Press readers first met the fundraising campaign in our Jan. 15 report, when families were organizing lemonade stands, hit-a-thons and raffles. In subsequent spring outreach, organizers put the trip’s cost at $35,000.
Smith said the boys participated in more than 18 events over 18 months across Bergen, Passaic and Rockland counties, raising thousands of dollars while learning to approach people and explain their goal.
His son, whom Smith described as “more reserved in his personality,” brought in hundreds of dollars in a few hours outside Goldberg’s in Westwood by introducing himself and the team’s mission.
Smith also recalled 13 boys spending four hours outside Angelina’s on a frigid Super Bowl weekend. Those shared efforts, he said, helped players learn to support one another through strikeouts, errors and difficult games. (He proposed with pride, “None of the other 94 teams forged the bonds we did— and it showed.”)
In its post-trip thank-you, the team recognized families, friends and community supporters, naming Angelina’s Italian Deli, Precision Health Fitness, Goldberg’s Famous Bagels–Westwood, The Towncast, Hawthorne Theater, Davey’s Irish Pub & Restaurant and Chipotle Mexican Grill in Montvale.
Color commentary
At All Star Village, Smith described cars streaming in, ballfields spread out below and children claiming any available space for their pin collections. (Teams bring custom pins to exchange, turning introductions into a weeklong collecting tradition.)
Mikey Phelan and Connor Smith got into the trading soon after arrival, with Jesse Sager and Jake Baez joining in. The adults proved enthusiastic, too.
“And if you could believe it, some of the biggest pin traders right now are the moms,” Smith said. “They’re still trading as we speak.”
Then came the games. Phelan, Maison Mussa, Matt Baez, Nick Quinn, Lincoln Drummond, Tony Odige and Nick Jones shared the bench during the opening victory. Over the week, there were golden moments: Odige sliding safely headfirst into third, Calonico and Phelan collecting home run balls.
Smith singled out a victory over an opponent he described as a top-four team in a field of 94. He said only the Venom and the eventual champion beat that team.
Leading the boys were manager Elan Ofeck and coach Will Odige Jr. As we previously reported, Ofeck graduated from Northern Valley Old Tappan in 2023, helped win the 2022 Bergen County championship and went on to pitch at Gettysburg College.
The families had their own turns at bat: three moms, including Tara Sager, entered the moms’ home run derby, Smith said.
At the Hall of Fame, the team happened upon Santana, who threw the Mets’ first no-hitter in 2012. Lambert posed with the pitcher. After the museum visit, players and siblings gathered for a meal, with Mason Morris, Peyton Calonico and teammates sharing the table with Dom and Christian Calonico and other family members.
Back home, the program’s growth continues the story. Pascack Press reported June 3 on its expansion into additional age groups.
“Part of the reason why we’re expanding is because of this community support,” Smith said. “They’re the ones that are asking for it.”
For Smith, one Cooperstown moment remains especially vivid: his son’s first home run at the 12-year-old level, a drive to center field.
“I can tell you right now in telling you this story, I still can kind of get a flutter and I can still hear the crack of the bat in my head.”
They retrieved the ball and had it inscribed.
What began as a dream wrapped in winter coats, for these kids and their families summer 2026 is now safe at home, and one for the record books.