Green Bay Packers head coach Mike McCarthy, one of five children from a Greenfield, Irish-Catholic family, can easily identify the influences that shaped his youth.

• There were his father and mother, Joe and Ellen. Joe was a sometimes fireman, sometimes policeman, sometimes bar owner and all-the-time head of the family.

• There was also, in a broader sense, all of Greenfield.

And yesterday, McCarthy gave something back to the neighborhood that helped mold him.

McCarthy partnered with the Green Bay Packers to make a $100,000 donation that will be divided among three Greenfield entities -- St. Rosalia Academy, the Greenfield Baseball Association and the Greenfield Organization.

McCarthy -- and his four siblings -- went to St. Rosalia, a kindergarten-eighth grade school, and as children played for the Greenfield Baseball Association. The Greenfield Organization was founded in 1968 to improve recreational facilities, including Magee Recreational Center, in the community.

All are places near to McCarthy's heart.

"The lessons I learned at Magee Field and that I learned at St. Rosalia are things that I think back on every day," McCarthy said. "When I think of Magee Field, I think of it as being our little inner-city country club. We had a pool, we had baseball fields, we had basketball courts ... there were always hundreds of people and there was always something going on. And when I think of St. Rosalia, I think of discipline, academics and I think of being taught how to live your life the right way. All of that, to this day, is very important to me and it all started back in Greenfield."

Gary Moser is the president of the Greenfield Baseball Association, which was established in 1951, making it among the oldest in the city. He said to know McCarthy is to understand that even as he has risen to the position of a head coach in the NFL is to also know that he would never forget the place that forged him.

"We are Pittsburgh and Greenfield guys just like Mike is, and he knows we don't get paid to coach or to spend all the time we do with these kids teaching them baseball," Moser said. "We get involved with Greenfield baseball for the kids. For him to do this, well, we all owe him a lot of thanks. But anyone who knows him knows how much he cares about Greenfield and they aren't surprised he gave money back to his community like this."

But McCarthy was taken aback yesterday when told he is a role model to many in Greenfield.

"That isn't really something I have thought about until now, and, you know, I don't know what to say. I am very humbled to know that, yes, maybe there is a little kid who says, 'He grew up here and he is an NFL coach, maybe I can do it someday,' " he said when reached by phone. "There is a responsibility and, to hear that Pittsburgh people might look up to me is the ultimate compliment, as far as I am concerned, the ultimate compliment. Greenfield is a place that knew me when I was developing. It is a place that made me who I am. Where I am today, I owe that to Greenfield."