2025 True Heroes: Marci Dickerson

THE BASES ARE LOADED, the sun is shining, and the batter stands at the plate. Parents wearing team jerseys sit on the edges of their seats. Kids laugh and squeal as they scurry to get the ball, little feet kicking up dust. 

This is the kind of moment Marci Dickerson, founder of Warrior League in Las Cruces, believes all families deserve to experience. “Our family is a big baseball family,” says the 49-year-old mother of two. Her older son, Saxon Marr, played at New Mexico State University, and her younger, Weston Marr, is on the team at Mesilla Valley Christian School. 

A few years ago, her nephew with autism, Bryce Morris, called her crying because he had aged out of T-ball, and his disabilities wouldn’t allow him to play on other teams. Dickerson wanted to help. “He said to me, ‘Why can’t I play baseball? How come no one wants me?’ And I knew I had to do something,” she says. “There really isn’t a problem I can’t solve.”  

Born and raised in Las Cruces, Dickerson owns seven businesses, including two restaurants, and has run one of the largest catering companies south of Albuquerque for more than 28 years. 

“Thirty minutes after that phone call, Marci told me she was setting up a league for kids with disabilities,” says Kari Morris, Dickerson’s sister and Bryce’s mom. As Dickerson worked to get the Warrior League up and running in 2021, she realized how many kids needed it. “There were so many children who couldn’t play,” she explains. 

Dickerson secured sponsorships from local businesses to cover the cost of jerseys and equipment, making it totally free for the roughly 60 to 80 children who participate in the league each season. “We’ve had the same sponsors every year,” she says. “It’s really great.” 

Dickerson sought guidance from adaptive physical education experts who could help ensure Warrior League players were protected. “Cruces Creatives helped us build a hitting mechanism for children with limited mobility,” she says. Made with a paddle the kids can push or touch to make a bat hit the ball, it gives everyone the opportunity to feel like they’re playing. “We wanted them to have that sense of doing it on their own,” she says. 

As Warrior League has developed, they’ve learned that the rules don’t matter as much as the experience. Nobody gets tagged out, for example. The batter swings and hits the ball while New Mexico State baseball players, who help the team every week, toss balls out to the players in the infield. “It’s beautiful chaos,” Dickerson chuckles. The kids get the balls and put them in a bucket on one of the bases before the whole process starts over. “Our active baseball games require about 70 balls,” she laughs. 

Warrior League is as much for the parents as it is for the children. “Parents are in the stands with pom-poms, and other parents are out on the field,” says Dickerson, who also started Cancer Warriors after a breast cancer diagnosis in 2022. “When my nephew couldn’t play, I realized how much the parents miss.” 

Outside the lines, Warrior League has helped create a community of support in Las Cruces for families with special needs children. “We have become friends with a lot of the parents,” Morris explains. “It’s great to have that support.”