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A Day in the Life of a Varsity Team |
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by Dan Veaner
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Friday, 21 April 2006 |
Last Tuesday and Wednesday (4/18 and 4/20) the Lansing Recreation Department ran softball and baseball clinics in cooperation with the respective High School varsity teams. Around 70 first through sixth graders got to work with the Varsity players decked out in full uniform, and experience what the High School players go through every day. "It's a day in the life of a Varsity team, scaled back to the size of our young participants," says Lancing Recreation Director Steve Colt.
On Tuesday Katie Mayo brought the Girls Varsity Softball team to coach almost 30 kids, then Wednesday Ed Redmond and the Varsity Boys Baseball team came out to work with about 40 more. It was a great experience for the younger kids. "I think they like being around us, because we're on the varsity team," says Varsity Baseball Player David Valesente. I think they look up to us." Colt agrees. "They love it," he says. "Because to them these are the upper classmen in the varsity uniforms, they're like major leaguers to those kids."
Colt says it's also a great experience for the varsity players. "They get a little nervous to start with," he says. "They aren't being taught, they are the teachers. Then you see the enthusiasm. Now all of a sudden they are teaching the things that they've been taught. You really understand something when you actually pass it onto the next person."
That was evident at the Wednesday baseball clinic. "It's going real well," said Coach Redmond. "Kids are working well. The varsity guys are getting some exposure to some coaching and some teaching, and it's been a fun day." Valesente agreed, "They're wired and happy to be here." He says he likes working with young kids. He has also been a camp counselor at Ithaca College Baseball Camp doing the same thing. For most of the day the kids were broken up by grade into three sections, 1-2, 3-4, 5-6. The varsity players worked two hour shifts with seniors staying for the whole clinic.
Both clinics were packed into four hours, and included the routines the varsity teams use, including warm-ups, batting, throwing and catching exercises and ending by splitting into teams for a game. The Recreation Department and varsity coaches make a point of coordinating, so that kids have a consistent experience as they move from Rec department programs through school sports. It's a very successful synergy, as evidenced by the strong successes Lansing varsity teams enjoy. So far this season the baseball team is 6-1. Colt says, "They are very winning teams. It is clearly one of the top baseball programs in New York State, in any division, and Ed has a lot to do with that. I'd like to think that we played a small part in that by getting kids interested."
Each kid paid a $15 fee for the clinic. Colt says the Recreation Department donates all the money back to the teams, to help defray costs of trips the teams take when they're playing. The clinics have been run for about seven years. "The neat thing is that some of the Varsity players also went through this when they were younger. So it's completed a whole cycle," he says.
 Coach Redmond with future and present varsity players
Colt sums up, "This thing is really a good thing all the way around, no mater what the age of the kid. No matter whether the kid is a five year old first grader or an eighteen year old senior. Both of those kids are getting something out of this thing." Redmond saw it in the kids' faces. "They seem to be having fun," he said. "All the smiles and laughing is a good indicator that the kids are enjoying themselves."
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