Memorial scholarship carries on Halladay's legacy

This story was excerpted from Todd Zolecki's Phillies Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

CLEARWATER, Fla. -- It is early Tuesday morning at BayCare Ballpark and Brandy Halladay is working the room.

Clearwater For Youth¡¯s ¡°Breakfast at the Ballpark¡± is beginning in 30 minutes, and Brandy is saying hello to everybody. The non-profit organization is awarding $180,000 in scholarships to 24 high school students in Pinellas County, including the Phillies¡¯ David P. Montgomery Memorial Scholarship. Halladay has worked with CFY for years, but this is the first year she has awarded a Roy Halladay Memorial Scholarship.

¡°I wanted to do something to remember Roy, to keep him relevant,¡± Brandy said.

It has been more than seven years since Roy Halladay died in a plane crash in Nov. 2017. Months earlier, CFY honored Halladay as its 2017 Champion for Youth.

Two years later, Roy got inducted posthumously into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Brandy gave an emotional, pitch-perfect induction speech in Cooperstown, N.Y.

¡°You know, life doesn¡¯t stop,¡± she said. ¡°It just keeps going. So you¡¯ve got to appreciate your time and do the best you can with it.

¡°But being here is awesome. This really feels like home.¡±

CFY is home, too. It started more than 50 years ago to help children in Pinellas County play sports without concerns for cost. Its missions have grown since then.

Brandy has been co-chair of CFY¡¯s scholarship committee for about three years, but Roy and Brandy were involved with the group long before that.

¡°Roy and I always had our family foundation,¡± Brandy said. ¡°We¡¯ve had that since the beginning of baseball. But when Roy retired, it was like, well, now what? We still have our foundation. We still have all these things we want to do. We thought we were going to get to do more. But life after retirement wasn¡¯t so simple.¡±

Halladay found a passion: coaching his two boys in baseball. He started to work with Positive Coaching Alliance because he wanted children to have memorable, positive experiences in sports.

¡°Roy had a very strong opinion on how he wanted to coach a team,¡± Brandy said. ¡°He really wanted to make sure that he coached kids the right way. He always said this: ¡®We¡¯re not raising good baseball players. We¡¯re raising young men who happen to love baseball.¡¯ I¡¯ve watched Roy play with eight kids on the field because if you have a bad attitude, he¡¯d rather lose with eight than win with nine.¡±

The Roy Halladay Memorial Scholarship is sponsored by the Halladay Family Foundation. The selected student has to ¡°demonstrate Halladay¡¯s ability to [persevere], even when faced with challenges¡± and demonstrate the ability to ¡°overcome those challenges to lead to a successful outcome.¡±

¡°The goal for our scholarship is that the kids who come from a team that participated in Positive Coaching Alliance, those coaches and kids are rewarded,¡± Brandy said. ¡°Coaching was always really important to him. I wanted to keep him relevant, keep his name relevant in sports. I wanted to do something to remember him.¡±

People often ask how Brandy and her sons are doing. Braden Halladay, 24, is the oldest. Ryan, 20, is the youngest. Both are doing well. Braden is spending this spring working with the Clearwater Threshers -- the Phillies¡¯ Single-A affiliate -- before he takes a job as a data apprentice with the Texas Rangers.

¡°We¡¯re doing well,¡± Brandy said. ¡°We¡¯re trying to simplify a bit, just focus on the things that really matter. The boys are closer than ever. We laugh a lot, tell funny stories. I think it¡¯s funny when they tell stories about their dad. If it¡¯s a goofy story, it¡¯s like, ¡®Oh, man. Roy used to do that all the time. Remember that time we caught him eating Oreos in the closet?¡¯ But it¡¯s always Roy and the funny story.

¡°We have a lot of kids that come stay with us. I¡¯ve got three kids right now staying with us. Two play for the Blue Jays. One is trying to get a job [with an organization]. So we¡¯re still in baseball.¡±

For more information about Clearwater For Youth, visit here.