At the Schools: Central baseball reaping the benefits of youth program
PROVIDENCE — It takes a village to raise a child and it also takes a community to produce a good public high school baseball team — especially if that high school is in the inner city.
In 2015, when Central High was placed in Division I under a new Interscholastic League baseball realignment, some people felt it was unfair to put a Providence public school in the state’s top baseball division.
After all, it was no secret over the previous three or four decades that baseball in Rhode Island had become a suburban game, especially as the players reached high school age. The kids from the suburban cities and town were the ones who were taking their games beyond Little League and Babe Ruth to travel-team type of competition.
No public school team from an urban city had won the Division I state baseball title since Woonsocket did it in 1986. Over those years the state championship was won by either a private school whose roster was loaded with kids from suburbia or a suburban public high school team.
But veteran Central coach Dave Hanson didn’t complain. Forty-five years of coaching Interscholastic League baseball probably had taught Hanson it doesn’t help much to complain once the league has completed its realignment procedure.
“We will try to compete,” Hanson told me prior to the start of 2015 season.
The Knights were competitive in their first two years of D-I play, posting 8-10 regular-season records in both 2015 and '16. Then, last year, Central became the first Providence public school baseball team in decades to post a winning Division I record when it finished the regular season with a 10-8 slate.
Now, through the first three weeks of this season, Central is 5-1 in Division I play. The Knights added their fifth league victory on Friday when they overcame a 5-2 deficit with four runs in the bottom of the seventh en route to a 6-5 victory over North Kingstown.
There still a long way to go in the season, but right now Central has one of the best records in the 19-team Division I circuit.
“The kids in Providence are getting better," Hanson said. "The Providence Sports and Leadership program is really helping them.”
It was 10 years ago that Bill Flaherty and Kennedy Arias, two guys who loved baseball and helping kids, conceived a plan to use baseball as a way to engage Providence youth in the development of their academic and leadership skills as well as their athletic talent. They called the program the Providence Sports and Leadership and mirrored it after a similar program in New York City where Flaherty grew up.
The idea was to give Providence kids a chance to play competitive baseball at an extremely high level like so suburban kids were doing on travel teams but at a reduced price for the city kids.
They knew baseball could be the hook to get some Providence kids involved in improving their academic and leadership skills because there now is a significant portion of the city's population with ties to the Dominican Republic where baseball is king.
The program has been an enormous success.
According to its website, the Sports and Leadership program now serves 80 boys between the ages of 13-18. There are travel teams in three age categories: 14, 16 and 18 & under. In addition to their spring and summer game and practice schedules the program exposes players to year-round training with a fall-ball program as well as indoor winter training at the Elmwood Community Center.
Flaherty and Arias are the leaders, but it’s a community effort. They get some private support, some government support and a lot of parental support.
When the players are not trying to quicken their swings or perfect their fastball, they are involved in mandatory community service directed by the coaches. There also a mentorship program where the players are guided through high school academic work and the college application process.
The PSL travel teams have enjoyed various success on the scoreboard through the years and some of their players have taken their games to even higher levels. Currently 15 PSL alumni are playing college baseball. That’s impressive, but in the grand scheme of life the most important stat is a total of 30 former PSL players have gone on to college.
Even the most die-hard Rhode Island baseball fan probably isn’t aware of those stats. But a lot Rhode Islanders do pay attention to the state high school baseball scene and right now Central, an inner-city school, has one of the best teams in the state.
PSL players can be found on high school teams throughout Providence and also at some other metro-area schools. But with many of the PSL activities centered around Providence's Elmwood area, it’s not surprising a large portion of the Central roster is comprised of PSL players.
“Better than half of our players are part of Providence Sports and Leadership,” Hanson said before Friday’s game. “Bill (Flaherty) and I stay in contact. We always say. ‘We are in this together,.' "
Which is why playing for his high school baseball team is so important for someone like Dariel Ramos.
Ramos, a senior, was born in Providence, but lived in his family’s native Dominican Republic for a few years before returning to Providence when he was in the fifth grade.
He knows it’s different for a high school-age baseball player in America than it is in the Dominican Republic. In America baseball and school are interwoven. You can’t play for your high school baseball team if don’t do the required work in the classroom. In the Dominican Republic baseball and school are separate entities.
“It’s important for Central to have a good baseball team because Central is our school and baseball is our game,” said Ramos, who pitched a no-hitter and had three hits in a 6-0 victory over Pilgrim on Tuesday. “It’s our dream to make our classmates proud of the Central baseball team.”
He has grown up involved with the Sports and Leadership program and he knows how important it has been in his life.
“It has taught me a lot,” Ramos said about his involvement with the PSL program. “It has taught me how to respect people and how to appreciate the game of baseball. It has taught me about the way of life.”
Sometimes the scoreboard only tells part of a team’s success.
http://www.providencejournal.com/sports/20180421/at-schools-central-baseball-reaping-benefits-of-youth-program
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