PYA coaches teach life lessons on, off the field

Sarah Minkewicz

Port Washington resident Joe Duarte said he started coaching Port Youth Activities teams as way to connect with his four sons, but soon found he was doing something more. 

“I quickly realized that we were teaching a lot more than sports at PYA. We were teaching life,” Duarte said. 

Duarte would go on to serve on the Port Youth Activities board for eight years, and help spearhead the Fund Raising and Disciplinary committees. He served as the director of travel baseball for the Port Youth Activities legends from 2009 to 2015, and helped revitalize the Legends team brand and shape that program into one of the most respected travel clubs on Long Island. 

After more than 15 years of coaching, Duarte, along with Port Youth Activities Executive Director Ronnie Henderson, will be inducted in the Port Youth Activities Hall of Fame on June 17 at the North Hempstead Country Club in Port Washington.

“When I first heard of this acknowledgement I was humbled and surprised. PYA has had so many great volunteers over its nearly 60 years of existence that I never in a million years expected this honor and recognition,” Duarte said. 

“It feels great and I am very humbled to think that I am now in such wonderful company with former inductees that have contributed so much to the youth of Port Washington and to this wonderful organization,” he added. 

Duarte said he became involved with Port Youth Activities after spending time at Lions Field with his fours sons and wife, and decided to give coaching a try.

“I started focusing on travel baseball since my sons had an affinity for the sport and I had played baseball most of younger life and felt I could contribute more,” he said.

When he first got involved with Port Youth Activities, Duarte said, the South Shore ruled Long Island Youth baseball and the North Shore teams “were considered good at lacrosse.”

“During this the time, with the support of our baseball commissioner [Jimmy Cosolito] and program director [Brandon Kurz] we set on a course to compete against the better south shore teams and revitalize the “PYA Legends” brand,” he said. “Along with many dedicated coaches, outstanding players and support from the parents we brought a “hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work” mentality to PYA travel baseball and the only goal we had as an organization was to teach our players to prepare better than their opponents and to play for each other and not themselves. Both great life lessons that can apply on and off the field. We never focused on the prize the only focus was the process.”

Duarte said the results of their dedication and commitment started slowly paying off and within a couple of years our teams started sweeping the Williamsport district championships at the 10,11 and 12 year old divisions and competing in The Williamsport Long Island sectionals.  

He was head baseball coach for a record six times at Cooperstown Dreams Park for its annual week-long tournament, and his teams had a winning record all six times. For two of those years, his teams were ranked in the top 25 of over 100 teams that competed, and those two teams went on to make it to the “Sweet 16” round of that tournament.

In 2013, for the first time in the history of Little League District 28, which is comprised of all neighboring towns, Port Youth Activities sent the first team ever to compete in the Long Island Championship and won the Long Island Williamsport title.

“Greatest experience was probably my 2013 team winning the Long Island Williamsport Championship for the first time in program history and watching the entire community rally around these kids,” Duarte said. “The experience was unforgettable.”

Several players he coached, he said, have gone on to play in NCAA college programs all over the country at all levels – Divisions I, II and III, as well as the Ivy League. 

Duarte said his experience coaching at Port Youth Activities has been life changing. 

“I feel that I have received way more from working with these young athletes and just watching them compete and develop into amazing people than I ever gave,” he said. “I would do it again and again.”

Henderson joined the Port Youth Activities board in 1987 and ended up as the longest-tenured executive director in the organization’s history. 

Under his leadership and supervision, over 21 years starting in 1994, the organization experienced a renaissance while enrollment in all sports more than quadrupled, as did program revenue, to become one the top youth sports organizations in New York State.  

Similarly, under his watch, the organization redeveloped Lions Field into one of the finest youth sports complexes on Long Island.

Henderson’s involvement with Port Youth Activities began long before he took a leadership role. 

He played for Port Youth Activities predecessor teams in both baseball and football (the Port Tigers and Blue Bullets), as well as CYO basketball. He attended St. Mary’s High School, and excelled on the school’s baseball, basketball and track teams. He moved on to Florida State, and then to C.W. Post (LIU) College, and after serving in the U.S. Army, signed a minor league baseball contract with the Boston Red Sox. 

Henderson also found time to referee high school and college basketball for 35 years, and is a 50-year member of the Port Washington Fire Department.

On June 17, the new inductees will join other Hall of Fame members such as Chris Callahan, Billy Omeltchenko, Nick DeMeo, and Ron Rochester as past Port Youth Activities honorees. 

The celebration will kick off with a cocktail hour at 7:30 p.m., and dining and dancing from 8:30 p.m. to midnight. 

There will be a silent and a live auction, and raffle prizes, too. The price is $175 per person. 

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