Jenna Sobolewski tried out for the Virginia “Class Action” Scrappers 14U Softball Team in the fall of 1999. This was the first year the Scrappers offered the 14U age group.  Jenna made the team that year and again in 2000. Ron Reynolds coached the 14U team both years she played.  Ron Reynolds described Jenna as “a very good softball player“ and said that she was surrounded a group of players that may have been the best Scrappers team ever assembled.  Some of her teammates included Brittany Buckley(VT, Tulane), Kasey Austin(Roanoke College), Allyson Campbell (VT, Iowa), Lyndsi Craig (Roanoke College), Vanessa Mejia(Long Island State), Megan Peters(VT), Tabatha Veney (North Carolina A & T),  Sarah Yeargan (Elon),  and Angela Tincher (VT).  Jenna would have been right in the middle of this group had it not been for her bout with cancer which ended in April of 2000. Ron Reynolds said, “Jenna came from a great family, was a very good athlete, great person, and a good student. 

The Scrappers Board of Directors in 2000 honored the wishes of her teammates and since the year 2000 the number 24 has been worn on the back of every Scrappers helmet. A vote by the Scrappers Board of Directors in 2009 replaced the #24 sticker with her nickname “Sobo” and added it to the back of every Scrappers helmet. Beginning with the 2011 season the #24 will be retired from all Scrappers teams and will never be worn again.

Tragedy inspires future doctor

Allyson Campbell, who plans to become a doctor, lost her friend and softball teammate to cancer several years ago.

By Ryan Basen

Thursday, August 19, 2004

For much of the summer Allyson Campbell balanced her duties as a team leader and second baseman on the Virginia Class Action Scrappers 18-and-under softball team with her summer job.

It's been trying at times, because Campbell's summer job is located in Memphis, Tenn., 650 miles west of Roanoke. The 18-year-old Salemite volunteers at the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, doing activities for kids and respite care through a program that she sought out.

Campbell is a biology major at Virginia Tech, where she will begin her sophomore year later this month. She hopes to go to medical school and someday be a cancer doctor for children.

The spark for this career ambition can be explained by examining her Scrappers' batting helmet: It includes a tiny decal with the number 24 - the number worn by Jenna Sobolewski, who was a friend and teammate.

Campbell met Sobolewski when they played against each other as kids on Roanoke County recreation softball teams in the mid-1990s. They later played together on the Purple Brats rec team and joined the 14-and-under Scrappers together in 1999.

After the season, though, Sobolewski began feeling sick and the next summer she was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor. While the Scrappers played their usual schedule, Sobolewski endured treatments and checkups.

Her teammates tried to cheer her up, sometimes bringing trophies from tournaments they had won to her house. Campbell even accompanied her and her family to a Duke University hospital for one treatment.

To her delight, doctors cleared Sobolewski to play with the Scrappers briefly that summer. She played in one tournament.

The following April, Sobolewski died. She was 15.

Before Sobolewski's death, Campbell had been interested in the sciences. After seeing what her friend went through, she was inspired to act on that interest. By her senior year of high school, she had decided to pursue work in the medical field.

"Going to her funeral was one of the first I remember," Campbell said. "It was actually somebody that I knew well. That kind of got me looking more into it."

Campbell has since declared a biology major at Tech, where she is also a utility player for the Hokies. She has studied cancer and stem cell research and enjoys volunteering at St. Jude. Throughout the end of her Scrappers' career (her last game was Aug. 7) she continued to wear the No. 24 decal on her helmet in Jenna's memory.

"She was young," Campbell said. "She didn't even get a chance to drive or go to her high school prom. It was upsetting to me that any child had to experience that."