A Grateful Coaches Reflection
My cell phone rings and I do not know the number and I was thinking of just having the call go straight to voicemail, but I changed my mind. It was the best decision I ever made!
“Hello,” I say with some trepidation.
“Hi Vin, my name is Danny Bernstein. You don’t know me, but I would like to have lunch and share with you an idea I have that will help move the needle forward pertaining to youth sports.” “Who is this guy?” I thought to myself.
At the time I was running the boys varsity basketball program at Rye Country Day and we were just weeks away from winning our second New York State Championship. I was also honored that year when New York State named me Coach of the Year. Previously, I had coaching stints at Springfield College, Darien High School in CT and as an assistant coach at Greenwich High School (with Richie Gersten, one of our current board members at Backyard Sports Cares).
So I was polite and the following week Danny and I went out for lunch. Here I was in my early thirties, starting a family, coaching high level sports and teaching/running the Health Education Department for the Mamaroneck Public Schools. I was happy, content and feeling like I was making a difference.
Looking back now, I was just scratching the surface.
To be completely honest, Backyard Sports Cares has changed my life for the better. We provide amazing programming for our underserved and special needs populations. We surround ourselves with key staff and coaches who truly love the power of how sports can transform lives for both the participants and their loved ones. We “check our egos at the door” and are athlete centered. We spend hours planning and thinking of ways to say “Yes” and not “No.”
My closest friends will tell you the fantastic stories I now tell them when we are hanging out. It is no longer stories of a double overtime win or a play I called that worked helping 12 boys feel good about themselves on my varsity team. They are stories about how Backyard Sports Cares is transforming entire communites and the thousands of families/athletes that reap the benefits of our mindful and sound approach to youth sports.
The joy of seeing a parent letting go on a Sunday allowing us to perform magic with their special needs child is better than any state championship. The joy of exposing athletes to tennis, skiing or fitness programming for the first time in their life is better than a personal trophy a coach can receive that will just collect dust on a shelf.
Every day I am thankful that Danny called me and we had lunch. I know for a fact that if every community in this country had Backyard Sports Cares, our country/world would be a better place.
We know that one lesson, one program and one idea can make all the difference to the population who we immensely love to serve. Look what this transformational organization has accomplished thus far. Only one can imagine what our next decade will look like and the decade after that. I can tell you that you haven’t seen anything yet!
Coach Vin Minotti
