SPRINGFIELD – Providing home-cooked meals, family getaways, and a consistent place to sleep are normal things for a mother to do, but how does one receive them while hundreds of miles away from home?
For a select few Springfield Drifters alumni, Sarah Keepers provided all that and more during their time with the summer baseball team.
“We’ve had a lot of fun. The players that have been placed with us, it’s been a seamless fit,” Keepers said. “I have a household of three boys that live at home, so having a couple, one or two extra at a time hasn’t added too much to the chaos. It’s been really, really positive.”
A family, not just a home
Host families for baseball teams typically try to provide a home for players while they focus on their baseball responsibilities – from the field to community events.
Given that the Drifters are a team of collegiate players from across the West Coast, many of the players travel long distances to be on the team.
Despite her commitment to being a host family since the Drifters’ inaugural season in 2021, Keepers wasn’t always sure she would be one. In fact, before becoming a host family, Keepers didn’t even follow baseball very consistently.
“I have a nephew that played at Oregon State and was super active in baseball, so we got more interested in it. But yeah, outside of just watching college baseball sometimes, it wasn’t a huge part of our life,” she said.
Now, baseball may be the biggest part of the Keepers family’s life for a few months each year.
“We literally spend like, our whole summer at the ballpark now, and it’s been really fun,” Keepers said.
Staying in touch
Jace Miller – an infielder for the University of Portland who resided with Keepers in the 2023 season – said it was a positive experience.
“It was awesome. She was always at the games, always supporting us,“ he said. “I had a roommate, so there were two of us. It was really supportive. It was nice to come home; it was more of a home environment, more than just like a house I was staying at. We’d always have family dinners and watch movies after games.”
On top of providing housing for up to a couple players each season, Keepers also lends her gym, West Coast Strength, for the whole team to use for free. All Drifters are given full membership to both the Springfield and Eugene locations, so no player struggles to find a place to train while they’re here.
Although it may seem like Keepers has the power to freeze time to manage her gym, her three children, and the extra mouths to feed over the summer, she insists being a host family isn’t much work.
“It’s not a lot of work because they’re busy so much of the time. That’s what I’ve tried to share with other people that have been interested or (who) say they’ve contemplated hosting, but they think they’re too busy,” Keepers said.
“Since they’re gone half the time, I don’t know that there’s a huge difference…They weren’t high school kids or middle school kids that I had to also sort of parent,” she said.
She didn’t have to parent them, but that doesn’t mean they weren’t family. Even after their seasons are over, Keepers ensures the players know they have a place to stay in Springfield. This is shown through her relationship with her most recent hostee, Kayle Pisano, who lived with Keepers and her family during the 2024 season.
Pisano is an infielder for the Oregon Ducks. Although his time with the Drifters ended in August, he still finds time for his new family.
“Any chance I get, I’ll go out to eat, or even go to her house and have a Sunday dinner with the family, play some games and so, yeah, it’s an amazing experience,” Pisano said. “I think they’ll forever be another family to me, which is awesome.”
Going forward, Keepers plans to continue hosting for the Drifters, saying, “as long as I have a spare bedroom that can do it, we will continue to do it. It’s never felt like a burden. In fact, we really enjoy it.”
