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Loyal To My Soil is a flourishing and rapidly growing nonprofit organization founded by former California and major-league pitcher Tyson Ross.
 
Five years ago, it was merely a dream and Ross' vision to grow the game.
 
It was the spring of 2020 and the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Ross was approaching his 33rd birthday and almost four years removed from being the San Diego Padres' 2016 opening-day starter. He had played for four different organizations since and that February had gone to spring training with a fifth.
 
Then the world shut down and Ross decided to come home.
 
"It turned out to be the best decision I ever made," Ross said.
 
It was the first time he had been back home in the Bay Area in February and eventually into the summer in "forever." His eldest son, Jordan, was 9 months old and taking his first steps.  His wife, Ashley, was turning a pile of rocks and dirt on the side of the house into a garden, and Tyson was trying to stay in shape should there be a 2020 baseball season.
 
He also had a lot of extra time on his hands.
 
"I started to explore and reconnect with some of the people I grew up with, and I found out a lot of kids were getting priced out of youth sports and local leagues were dying off," Ross said. "It just didn't sit right with me."
 
His vision for Loyal To My Soil began to take shape.
 
"Loyal To My Soil started as my COVID project," said Ross, who prepped at Bishop O'Dowd High School. "I knew what I wanted to accomplish. I wanted to bring baseball back to underserved communities. I wanted to start in my hometown and branch out from there."
 
One of the first things Ross did was connect with the Oakland Bulldogs youth baseball team and its head coach Chris McClarty, who Ross played baseball with as an Oakland youth. McClarty confirmed that the state of youth baseball in Oakland was causing a lack of commitment and motivation among prospective players.
 
Ross and his younger brother, Joe, currently an MLB pitcher for the Philadelphia Phillies, decided to get involved.
 
"My brother and I showed up at one their practices with a bunch of custom gloves. I wanted to give them something that made them feel special and a chance to meet a couple of big leaguers," Ross said. "We signed autographs and did a Q&A with the kids and their parents. It was a really cool day."
 
"It was unforgettable," McClarty added. "It was one of the highlights of my coaching journey."
 
But as cool and unforgettable as the day was, it wasn't nearly enough for Ross.
 
"As I was driving home, I thought 'we just showed up and played Santa Claus.' I didn't show them anything about the game," he said.
 
The experience only strengthened Ross' resolve, and soon Loyal To My Soil officially formed.
 
One of the first tasks was coming up with the name.
 
"The Loyal To My Soil name just fell into place," Ross said. "It was the perfect name. You may see something that looks hopeless, but it can thrive when you consistently give it love and attention. That's what happened with my wife's garden, and that's what we were hoping to accomplish with Loyal To My Soil. I wanted to make a true impact on the kids by teaching them skills that can help them on the field now and also inspire them long term. I wanted them to have bigger dreams."
 
At the beginning, it was important for Ross to focus his efforts on children in his hometown and other local underserved Bay Area communities. He remembered his days as a youth when MLB players such as fellow Oakland native Jimmy Rollins came back to their community.
 
"I was in the batting cages one day when I was about 11 years old, and I heard this crack that I'll never forget. It was the loudest noise ever," Ross said. "I went down to see who was hitting, and it's a 5-7 Jimmy Rollins just smokin' balls. Those brief glimpses of pro athletes that I knew came from the Bay Area and were doing what I wanted to do were enough for me to believe that with enough work, and luck, that I might be able to do the same.
 
"With Loyal To My Soil, I want to bring people like that into the community and onto the field. I want kids in those families to see that people who are from where they are from, and look like them, have achieved great things in professional baseball. That really gives them something to dream big about."
 
Among those now with bigger dreams are Maria Rojas' four children.
 
"Meeting and learning from Major League Baseball players and getting 'swag bags' at every camp are the highlights," said Rojas, a mother of four who serves on the Richmond Little League Board of Directors and has sent her children to multiple Loyal To My Soil camps.
 
"What Tyson is doing with Loyal To My Soil has revived the baseball community in our area," McClarty added. "What he's doing is more than amazing."
 
The organization has also branched out recently, partnering with the Cal baseball program as well as former Golden Bears now in the minor leagues in Rodney Green Jr. and Caleb Lomavita. It has held camps in Berkeley, in Green's hometown of nearby Richmond, and even in Honolulu, where they joined Lomavita and a group of local coaches. It has also conducted camps in Arizona by partnering with a Dodgers' rookie ball team and approached the MLB Players Association about providing a blueprint for a camp to run within its organization.
 
In addition, it has begun to donate equipment and sponsor local Little League teams.
 
"We're trying to figure out the best ways to expand," Ross said.
 
But keeping the one-day camps free remains one of the primary goals.
 
"We've been creative with our fundraising and been able to keep the price point at zero," Ross said with a huge sense of pride.
 
"I would not be able to afford taking all my kids if we had to pay," Rojas said.
 
One of the ways Ross kept camps free in the first year was by putting down his own credit card.
 
"I didn't want to get caught up in trying to fundraise and then never have it get off the ground, so I just said, 'here's my Visa,'" Ross said.
 
Now, Loyal To My Soil actively fund raises and much of what it is able to do comes from the proceeds of an annual golf fundraiser at Ruby Hill in Pleasanton.
 
"It's one of the best days you will see in the Bay Area," Ross said. "We bring out celebrity athletes who play alongside sponsored foursomes and have tons of local food on the course. I've met so many great people who just want to come out and support what our organization is doing."
 
To learn more, visit LoyalToMySoil.org.