CASEY OTERO didn’t know much about baseball when she stepped up to the plate in early 2024 to bring Little League back to Tularosa. What she did know was that the village’s kids needed an after-school activity to channel their energy in a positive way. Reinstating the lapsed Little League charter struck her as the solution.
“I didn’t play baseball or softball,” says the mother of three, who also holds two full-time jobs in the construction industry. Otero grew up on a ranch west of La Luz, graduated from Tularosa High School, and attended Eastern New Mexico University on a rodeo scholarship. Her husband, Jude, played high school baseball, but she wasn’t a fan until her sons, now 11 and 7, started playing.
Otero was confident that if she spearheaded the effort to resurrect the charter, which had expired in 2019, the community would rally around her. “People knew that Tularosa needed and deserved to have their own league again,” she explains. “They just needed a leader. Once I decided to do it, we had tons of support.”
Reinstating the charter was no small feat, but Otero was undeterred. Leveraging her organizational and management skills, and with guidance from her seasoned Alamogordo counterpart, Lori Lamb, she submitted a comprehensive application that included an estimated number of teams, a boundary map, proposed board members, proof of insurance, and a constitution and bylaws. The charter was renewed in February.
Otero's tireless dedication has rallied community support and funding for the youth sports league.
When the season opened in April, 187 kids from Tularosa and nearby Mescalero put on new uniforms, picked up equipment, and took to the diamond under the lights of the village-owned field. But it took a lot of people pinch hitting in those few short months to get there.
Otero, who transitioned into the role of the league’s board president; Jude; and board vice president James Vigil initially seeded and prepared their field of dreams, which required regular raking and weeding throughout the season. “We had opening ceremonies for each team’s first game,” Otero recalls. “Every player’s name was announced, and they gave a wave before the national anthem was played. It was a thrill to see.”
To underwrite the effort, the board solicited individual donations and business sponsorships that garnered $9,000. “The sponsors loved seeing their names on banners and players’ jerseys,” Otero says. “The whole community supported these kids night after night.” A raffle and an end-of-season festival raised an additional $2,000. The league hit another milestone in July when its Minors (ages 7–10) and Majors (10–12) competed in all-star tournaments in Artesia and Roswell, respectively.
“What she accomplished was just awesome,” says Jude, who coaches the Majors team on which older son Bradley played. “It’s crazy how she finds time for everything.” Vigil puts it another way: “She’s a powerful woman.”
Otero won’t rest on her laurels, though. Her next goal is to convince the Village of Tularosa to provide more practice fields to accommodate the growing league. “Sports and community go hand in hand,” she says. “It’s our collective responsibility to make sure there are enough activities to keep our kids engaged.”
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