Pine-Richland baseball players give back
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Luis Roberto Clemente, right, joins Pine-Richland High School baseball players, from left, Marcus Colella, Matt Clark and Sam Sedory in front of Roberto Clemente Sports City outside of San Juan, Puerto Rico. The players traveled to Puerto Rico last month to deliver donated baseball equipment to the Roberto Clemente Foundation to benefit children.
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While some teens spent their summer relaxing, a group of Pine-Richland baseball players combined their love of the sport with their desire to serve. The result was a winning off-season that has earned a high-five from the son of Roberto Clemente, a baseball legend known as much for his charity work as for his athletic prowess.
Some players on the team coached by gym teacher Kurt Wolfe formed a service group last year, calling themselves the Wolfe PACK, an acronym for Players About Community and Kids.
It started when Mark Colella, a radiologist from Richland, had a talk with his son, Marcus, now a 16-year-old junior.
"'Have you started to think about ways to give back?' I asked him," Dr. Colella said.
Marcus recalled that the question struck a chord. "I grew up knowing that it was important not just to live your life for yourself. You've got to think about others," he said. He found that many of his friends had been taught the same thing.
Sam Sedory, 18, of Pine, a senior this year, said the concept of combining baseball, his teammates and service "seemed like a perfect fit."
Dr. Colella, who became one of the adult advisers for the Wolfe PACK, first checked with the coach to make sure he approved of the idea of forming a service organization.
Naming the group for their coach was an idea that quickly bubbled up among the 20 or so ballplayers in grades 9 to 12 who are members of the PACK. Dr. Colella said the boys respect Mr. Wolfe as a coach and as a person who has shown fortitude and courage in his battle against advanced cancer. "He is facing these health problems, but he shows up at 5 a.m. to work these kids out. He inspires them," Dr. Colella said.
The Wolfe PACK's first project was volunteering this past winter at the local youth winter training sessions for recreational players between the ages of 8 and 12.
The next project involved partnering with the Pine-Richland Baseball/Softball Association, a community recreational league for children, to host four baseball tournaments in the summer. They asked tourney participants to donate used baseball equipment.
The association scheduled the tournaments, and PACK members dragged and raked the fields, kept score, coordinated publicity and generally provided support to the participants during the games. In all, some 32 teams with more than 500 players participated in about 80 games in June and July.
First Published September 15, 2011 5:52 am
