Central Islip, N.Y. – For the third
straight summer, Up2Us, a coalition of more than 650 nonprofit
organizations that believe in the power of sports to fight
childhood obesity, end academic failure, and reduce gang
participation, selected an ECC student-athlete to serve as an Up2Us
Coach Across America coach. Ronald Washington, Jr., a member of the
men's basketball team at Queens College last season, will spend his
summer coaching with the Westhab’s Elm Street Youth
Center.
Below is a blog written by Ron about his experiences.
Blog No.
1
by: Ronald Washington, Jr.
Hello. My name is Ronald Washington. I am a student
at Queens College and this summer I am working for Coaches Across
America as a coach at Westhab’s Elm Street Youth Center in
Yonkers, N.Y.
When I took this job, I thought it was to mainly coach the kids and
help them be better than they were, working at my site in Yonkers.
I’ve realized though, that I play more than a coaching role.
I am also a counselor and an educator. I also feel that part of my
job is to bring the ideal part of the true organization of sports
to these young people. The role of Westhab is to help change
lives not only through sports but educationally as well.
At Westhab, before the sports even come into play, we have many
educational services provided throughout the day and I am a vital
helping hand with assisting teaching the boys and girls. We
incorporate sports in some of the educational activities such as
word bowling, basketball spelling bee’s, and it can be as
simple as helping them increase their vocabulary and reading
comprehension. In this environment, it is very challenging; many of
these kids are not used to people devoting their time to them and
their attention spans can be very short. Being their primary
coach, my goal is to help them learn and give them hope, show
them that there are people that will not judge them, and actually
do care and want the best possible outcome for them to be
successful.
Each day I work with kids as young as six and as old as 15. The
kids are from diverse backgrounds, with many Latin Americans as
well as African Americans. Most of them come from single-parent
homes. I often engage with the parents at pick up time and will
often hear how happy they are to have me as a coach, someone who is
young and very enthusiastic, because they feel their kids look up
to me and feel I understand them more. That is a great
compliment.
When I work with the younger children, we do simple beginners
drills such as dribbling, passing, layups, defensive sliding, and
shooting. When I first started the drills, the kids all seemed to
want to be first. There was not a lot of sharing going on and lots
of short tempers. Over time though, most got better and I always
try to show them how proud I am of the progress they make each day,
celebrating their achievements. I also show them how teamwork
goes a long way and helping one another will make everyone better.
This is not just in sports. I see the progress also during
educational activities as well with the kids motivating each other
instead of making fun of one another when one reads slower than
another or didn’t get a correct answer to a question. I often
preach the definition of T.E.A.M. to everyone. Together Everyone
Achieves More.
The older kids I coach are more structured but also very
challenging. I am very motivated everyday to engage with the
older kids because as I speak to them, many express a sense that
they are struggling about an uncertain future. Some say they feel
life is already determined for them. This touched me because they
are so young and due to lack of resources and opportunities, some
feel they don’t have much hope. I want to help provide this
hope. With every inch in my heart I am willing to do whatever it
takes to help give these kids positive feelings about their future,
whether it’s spending extra time with them after work or
coming to their neighborhoods early. I want them to see that
I was not that much different from them when I was young. I grew up
in housing projects without much so I can relate to them more on a
personal level.
I work with them on both basketball and baseball. In
basketball, they know many of the concepts we work on. As far
as baseball, they are fairly new to the sport so I’ve been
teaching the basics of catching a proper ground ball, pop up fly
balls, fielding strategies, and the way to swing the bat.
This work means a lot to me because I want to bring to the children
I work with the enjoyable experiences I was blessed to have as a
kid and also teach them to enjoy life and have fun at everything
they can participate in. Knowing some of their circumstances is
tough, but I love putting a smile on their faces. It really
brightens up my day when I come to work and the kids run to me and
hug me as if I am their superhero. I just want to keep
working with them and help them getting better not only
athletically but as individuals as well. It will not happen
overnight but right now we are off to a great start.
Mentoring these kids and knowing their parents feel their children
are in great hands is an honor and I will continue to do my best to
make a difference in their lives.
