New York Daily News - News & Views Columnists - Clem... -
[Cached Version]
Published on: 7/1/2005
Last Visited: 7/1/2005
Eddie Albert (l.), executive director, and Marc Lussier, director of travel, have big plans and hearts.
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It needs people like Marc Lussier and Eddie Albert of the 78th Precinct Youth Council, who have been very, very good for the game.
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They are there courtesy of Lussier, Albert, and parents and supporters who have kept the council baseball teams running since 1989.
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It's a monumental task, organizing more than 900 children, young adults and their families each season, something made even more impressive when you consider that, outside of one paid coordinator and fund-raiser, all of the workers, including Lussier and Albert, are volunteers.
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"It's gigantic," said Albert, an attorney in his "mid-50s" and the group's executive director and commissioner of baseball.
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The name came not from an affiliation with the local police precinct, but as a description of the area where team members lived, Albert said.
The group eventually split off from the church and found new life as an organization supported by the parents.
The league has 58 intramural teams of 15 players each, grouped by age, which compete with each other, Albert said.
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"We approached Little League a while back about joining them, but they wanted us to have a dedicated field," a baseball field used only for Little League games, Albert said.
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Each year, former players receive already completed applications by mail, Albert said.They need only check the information and drop the form in the mail to reenroll.
Albert declined to state the leagues annual budget but did say application fees account for about 70% of it, with the rest coming from donations, team sponsors and fund-raisers.
And no child, he said, is turned away simply because he or she - the league has several girls' softball teams, as well as girls who play on boys' teams - cannot afford the application fee.
Because the league draws its coaches from parent volunteers who may not have played the game in years - both Lussier, who has been with the league for 15 years, and Albert,who has been with it for six, came in as parent coaches - the two produced instructional DVDs that explain the fundamentals given to new coaches.