The Stella-Olson Foundation for youth baseball in inner-city Omaha enters the new year fully armed with national partnerships.

Among those are Major League Baseball’s Nike RBI, Kansas City Royals Amateur Development System, Cal Ripken Sr. Foundation’s Badges for Baseball and USA Baseball.

New for 2025 will be a Nike RBI Bob Gibson Memorial Juneteenth tournament for 24 high school-age teams, half from Nebraska, June 19-22 during the College World Series. One of the visitors will be the New Zealand open 18U national team.

Stella-Olson co-founder and vice-chairman Tim Lukowski said each of the national groups provides distinct tools his group can use.

Nike RBI shows how to get the word out about a program and how to connect with other youth groups.

The Royals offer programs that an affiliate city can pick and choose for what works best.

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Badges for Baseball, a collaboration with the U.S. Department of Justice, shows how local first responders can be involved.

USA Baseball, the national governing body for amateur baseball, has 1979 Omaha Burke graduate Eric Campbell as general manager of its collegiate national team and professional team. It plans to co-sponsor with the Stella-Olson Foundation some NCAA D-II and NAIA national player of the year awards beginning in 2026.

“Being in the CWS town opens a lot more doors,” Lukowski said.

Local partnerships have been forged with Warren Academy/Dream Omaha, Heart Ministries, Omaha Public Schools, Archdiocese of Omaha, Boys/Girls Clubs of the Midlands, Ball Park Village (The Matt) and Chik-Fil-A.

For the second annual Stella-Olson winter dinner March 1 at Cascio’s Steak House, former Kansas City Royals player and major-league manager Clint Hurdle will be the keynote speaker. Twelve scholarships will be awarded.

Legacy Awards will be presented to coach Bill Lynam of Papillion-La Vista South, retired coaches Ron Johnette and Dave Cork (Millard North), Frank Ryan (Millard West) and Jim Thomas (Papillion-La Vista South) and long-time Rosenblatt Stadium groundskeeper Jesse Cuevas.