In the movie Field of Dreams, a midwest farmer portrayed by Kevin Costner levels a portion of his cornfield and in its place builds a regulation-size baseball diamond. As the movie progresses, the ghosts of players banned from baseball step out of the rows of corn and begin to play the game they loved so much under the lights in the midst of fresh sweet corn on a hot summer evening. The game was theirs again. Their souls searched for a second chance to play the game, run across the grass turf and hear the ball smack the leather glove after the crack of a bat.
Sports pull at the spirit of men and women to compete and succeed.
Few make it to the top and the others settle for recreational or school sports to fulfill their needs, but not necessarily their dreams. They find professional sports elusive. However, last year three Army Reserve soldiers from the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia mobilized for Operation Joint Guard found themselves on their field of dreams. They stepped out of their U.S. Army uniforms and into the jerseys of the Aschaffenburg Stallions, one of numerous semi-professional football teams here. SFC Donald Ingram of Martinsville was the first to find the field and became the defensive line coach.