NEW RICHMOND, Ohio — The New Richmond Youth Sports Association has started a t-shirt fundraiser to support the Doerman family.
Chad Doerman, 32, confessed to shooting and killing his three sons aged 3, 4 and 7. The money raised from the t-shirt will go to the boy’s mother and sister.
“It’s very special to us because the sister and the mom both looked at the design,” said NRYSA President Kristin Bennett.
The boys' sister helped finalize the design.
“She wanted to add some baseballs with their numbers and one baseball with a halo, and so what we turned around and did was added the halo and wings on all the balls and kept three of them on there to represent all three of the boys,” Bennett said.
If you order a shirt by 8 p.m. Tuesday night, they will arrive in time for the memorial event on Sunday at the sports association’s baseball and softball fields. Bennett added they will have a limited number available for purchase on Sunday. She said they’ll continue to take orders leading up to the event and after.
As the community continues to process what happened, the children’s baseball coaches are remembering them for their fun-loving personalities.
“No. 7 he was a funny kid, he always liked to joke around kind of like his older brother. He would always give you dirty little looks, we were always playing games,” said Tony Brock.
Brock coached the 4-year-old, No. 7, in tee ball.
“He just like hitting. He was real serious when he got up to hit you could really tell he means business,” Brock said. He was different, you could just tell with his stance and the way he knew what he was doing at 4 years old.”
Dwayne Kuhn coached the 7-year-old, No. 99, for three years.
“He was so funny,” Kuhn said. “He was intense when he would come to the plate. It was all business with him when he was batting. We were out on the field and he’s a little bit of a jokester. There would be times in the middle of a game in between pitches he would pick up a little bit of dirt and throw it at the umpire and I would have to get on him and say ‘hey pay attention’ and he would just give me this little smirk.”
He added that No. 99 always pumped up his teammates.
“He was one of those kids you could always hear cheering on his teammates on the field,” he said.
Kuhn noted he saw the 7-year-old becoming a pitcher one day just like his big sister.
“It’s cool to watch someone that has the drive to want to continue to pitch and to see her from the beginning when she started to pitch to now. It’s night and day,” said Cari Lally.
Lally coached the boys’ sister for seven years. She said their sister plans to play in their honor.
“[This is] our last week of softball, we were not going to participate in the tournament, but she reached out and wants to play to honor her brothers, so we’re making it happen and we will be playing in the tournament this weekend,” Lally said. “The amount of strength it takes to want to do something like that, and it just made me very proud.”
NRYSA doesn’t know if the team will play at their home field or away. The team will play on either Thursday or Friday. The championship game will be on Saturday or Sunday.
Bennett noted the teenager is always willing to help.
“The oldest daughter was an umpire and she worked in our concessions. She was very important to me, covering games and that’s what it’s all about letting the kids play and she was very responsible in that area,” Bennett said.
Bennett added NRYSA is looking into permanently memorializing the Doerman boys at their fields.
“The sister has clearly said she wants to see No. 99 and the No. 7 around this ball field forever, and you know if that’s what’s going to make her feel better and heal that’s what we’re going to do,” she said.
All of the coaches said they would like to see that happen.
NRYSA will host a memorial event on Sunday to honor the boys. Bennett said it will be an uplifting day where they can share memories of the children. People will be able to write down their favorite memories and place it in a box. It will be delivered to the Doerman boys mother and sister.
Brock and Kuhn have a lot of great memories with the boys, but they say these ones stand out.
“The favorite memory is when he switch hits. We know he bats left, but he would go up there and bat right and turn around and just laugh at us,” Brock said.
“My biggest memory of him is just going to be his smile,“ said Kuhn. “He had that smile that was kind of a contagious thing, and he would look at you with that little smirk and smile and you couldn’t help but smile back at him because he was so cute.”
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