By Laura Lane
Mackey, 14, an accomplished baseball player, was on Clarke¹s junior varsity baseball team this year. He remembers learning the fundamentals of the game when he played in Central Nassau¹s t-ball league. It was a desire to give back to his community that initially led Mackey to volunteer to be a mentor for the league.
But Mackey said, by the end of the season, he achieved more than some community service hours. ³Working with the kids brought me back, and I could see things I could have improved on if someone had shown me,² he said. ³I really liked teaching the kids how to bat, how to field the ball. Helping them and seeing them improve really felt good.²
Central Nassau¹s mentoring program, which is in its third year, resulted from a conversation between Donna Derry, the founder of the program, and her daughter Sarina. ³My daughter, who was on Clarke High School's softball team, said she noticed that some of the girls were not enthusiastic. She said there were a lot of kids running around needing more direction,² Derry said. ³Sarina recruited a couple of her friends from Clarke¹s softball team and they worked with the girls.²
The approach worked so well that Derry spoke to then Central Nassau¹s president Bob Carr about a mentoring program. Carr approved and helped Derry develop the program and it's grown. Now a mentoring form is included in the Central Nassau mailings and kids have been taking an interest.
This year, 12 teens joined the program, open to teens between 14 to 16 years of age. Assigned a team, they attended practices and games. ³Mentors work with the younger children to give them that extra attention they need and help out at the games too,² Derry said. She added that what began as a community service project for some grew into more of a passion. ³The mentors ended up feeling like a part of the team," she said. "They marched in the Little League parade as a mentor with their team and even appeared in the team picture.²
Pastore¹s coach, Larry Nastasi, said Mackey¹s work with the children was great. ³Ryan was so good with the kids taking the time and patience to talk with them,² Nastasi said. ³At this age, the 5-year olds don¹t have a great attention span. So for safety reasons we have to make sure the children are aware where the ball is. Ryan provides an extra hand to help us out.²
Nastasi believes mentors gain much more when they sign on to volunteer than they¹d probably imagined. ³The best way to learn is to teach and because a mentor is teaching skills he¹s reinforcing knowledge he already has," he said. "He¹ll be a better player after mentoring. Mentoring teaches a teenager discipline and maturity and gives him a chance to take control.²
Michael Nuzzi, 17, agrees with Nastasi. He was a mentor when the program first formed and he enjoyed the experience. He said the only reason why he isn¹t mentoring this year is because he was asked to work as an umpire for the league instead.
But Nuzzi thinks his mentoring experience helped him know how to be an effective coach, which he plans to do someday. Nuzzi said the program was valuable. ³I wish they had had something like that when I was younger,² he said. ³I really liked working with the kids, especially the ones who were afraid to hit the ball. I¹d talk to them calmly and I think it was better to have them hear it from me, a kid who¹s not far from their age. By the end of the year when I¹d see those kids hit the ball it was great.²
Comments about this story? LLane@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 236.
