Brooklyn Baseball Star Leads Astoria Middle School's Team

I.S. 235 baseball coach Jeff Cohen (at right) and three of his New Americans were at City Hall for the Opening Day ceremony of the New York City Middle School Baseball League. Also shown from left to right are Adrian Rondon, Victor Acevedo and Felix Reynoso. When I.S. 235 baseball coach Jeff Cohen makes out his lineup card, he finds himself choosing between natives of Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Mexico, Ecuador, Colombia, Brazil, Venezuelan, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

For the record, that's nine countries, one United States territory and four or five languages; there are also five girls on the team. At that, it might just be the most diverse ballclub in Queens, and if the borough is America's most diverse county, what does that make the Astoria middle school's baseball team?

"It's like a family," said Cohen, who lives in Glendale with his wife and son.

But the composition of the Astoria middle school's baseball team is not an accident.

Also known as the School for New Americans, I.S. 235 was cre- ated 13 years ago to help immigrant students adjust to American society.

"Some of these kids may have been in America for a week when they start school, and they may not speak any English," reported Cohen. "They're not ready to go to a regular school."

Instead, they enroll at I.S. 235, where they take an English-learning heavy course load and adjust to life in America alongside classmates who are going through the same things. They generally stay at the school for one year only, then enter regular schools within the district.

"In the beginning of the year, you notice that the kids break into groups based on country or language," said Cohen. "But as the year goes on you see a kid from Nepal hanging out with a kid from the Dominican Republic, or a kid from the Philippines with a kid from Bangladesh. This team is going to be a part of that."

A happy accident

A Brooklyn native, Cohen was a star pitcher at Coney Island's Abraham Lincoln High School, winning first-team All-City honors in 1996. He went on to play Division I college baseball at C.W. Post in Long Island and embarked on a teaching career in the New York City public school system.

"I got excessed out of my first job after one year," Cohen said, and the only school in the district with an opening for a physical education teacher was I.S. 235. "It was hard in the beginning," he continued. "A lot of our kids don't speak much English, and I didn't speak much Spanish at the time. But my wife is Puerto Rican, so I'd get some help from her at home. And I learned that I could ask one of the students with better English to help translate for me when I didn't know how to say something."

Cohen stuck to it, and while he says he is still apt to call on a translator in class or at practice, on the whole he's thrived. In 2005, he was the school's Teacher of the Year, and he now teaches 8th grade math in addition to gym.

"You watch a kid come in," said Cohen, "not speaking English, alone in this country. And in a matter of months you watch them start to find their place. ... Most of us get into teaching because we want to make a difference. When it happens, it's really satisfying."

A struggling league finds a backer

It wasn't long ago that there were no middle school baseball teams for the city's public school students.

The first incarnation of the New York City Middle School Baseball League was founded in 2005 by Robert Schliessman, the director of Physical Education and Health at P.S. 334 in Manhattan.

In the beginning, Schliessman stated in a release, the league consisted of only four teams. "[We] played on gritty fields, with barely any equipment or uniforms," he said. "Although the resilience and dedication from the students was there, the funding was not,"

Then in 2008, the league found a benefactor in the Pinnacle Group, a Manhattan-based property owner and manager, which provided funding for uniforms, umpires and equipment and brokered a partnership with state and city agencies to contribute field time and other resources such as transportation to games.

"Playing baseball is almost a rite of passage," said Pinnacle Group CEO Joel Wiener. "Every kid should have the opportunity to put on a uniform and play on a baseball team, regardless of their economic background, skill level or geographic location."

With that ethos in mind, the league began play earlier this month with 15 schools from Manhattan, nine from the Bronx and five from Queens, and more than 500 students will play over 200 games.

"It's amazing what Pinnacle has been able to do for this program," said Cohen. "When I saw the uniforms that they gave us, I said, 'Wow, this is going to mean a lot to these kids. They never would have gotten to do this.'"

With rewards come challenges

"It's something special for the kids," agreed I.S. 235's principal, Carmen Iris Rivera. "It teaches them teamwork, spirit, how to follow rules. We made a point of asking some girls to play, because many of them come from countries where girls are not encouraged to participate in sports.

"They said, 'But we don't know how to play,' and we told them, 'That's all right. You'll learn.'"

That makes for a nice story, but can be tough on the field of play. The New Americans, lost their first game 15-2, and their coach is worried there might be some more tough losses on down the road.

Cohen said that after that first game, his starting pitcher, whom he regards as one of his most advanced players, confessed that he had never played a game of organized baseball.

"It's tough," the former baseball star said. "I'm a competitive guy and the juices get flowing. But I remind myself that I have to teach the basics. When to run, where to throw, when you have to tag the runner and when you can step on the base.

"We have a couple of kids from Bangladesh," he continued, "and in Bangladesh they play cricket. In cricket, after the batter hits the ball, when he runs he carries the bat. So in our first game, we had a kid hit the ball and take the bat with him on his way to first base. A couple innings later, another kid, it happened again. So after the game, we said, 'So what are we going to do next time when we hit the ball? Drop the bat.'"

Still, Cohen says that he and his team are having a great time.

"After the game," said Cohen, "even though we lost, even though I might have been a little down, the kids were upbeat. They were asking me, 'Mr. Cohen, when's our next game?'"