Nyack Valley Cottage Little League Opens Season With A Tribute To Coach Who Was A 9/11 Victim

Play ball!

With spring having officially begun (and the weather finally starting to cooperate with the calendar), Little League seasons are beginning all across the county. On Saturday, the Nyack-Valley Cottage Little League held its opening day ceremonies on Jon Albert Memorial Field at Liberty Elementary School in Valley Cottage. The event featured a ceremonial first pitch by David Albert, Jon Albert’s son, along with appearance by several local officials.

Albert’s catcher for the first pitch was his cousin Taylor Schwarz, also a former player for NVCLL.

“I was able to throw it to my cousin, that was nice,” the younger Albert said of his experience throwing the first pitch. “I’m glad they were honoring my dad. It was a good honor for me to do that.”

Jon Albert was a former coach and board member for the NVCLL, who was killed during the September 11^th terrorist attacks. Both of his sons, Steven and David, came through the Little League and went on to become pitchers for the varsity team at Nyack High School.

“He [Jon] was a baseball guy; he knew the game,” said Marty Schupak, who coached in the league with Jon Albert. “He taught me a lot about the game, like I learn from all my assistant coaches. He was very good with the kids. […] After a loss he was very easygoing when he talked to the kids. He was a soothing, calm type of guy. […] He’s just the type of guy that if you were speaking he would make you feel important and relaxed and was easy to talk you.”

The field now has a plaque with Albert’s name and picture on it, and Schupak said this makes him feel like Albert is still watching over everyone.

“I always look at the plaque every day and I get a good feeling thinking about him,” Schupak said. “It’s like his spirit is still here in a way too.”

The opening ceremonies featured a parade of all the children in the league around the field. Lexie DiBlasio, a sixth grader at Nyack Middle School, then sang the national anthem for the crowd. After this the board members for the Little League were introduced along with the dignitaries in attendance, including Town of Clarkstown Supervisor Alexander Gromack, state Assemblyman Kenneth Zebrowski, D-New City, and Rockland County Legislator Frank Sparaco, R-Valley Cottage.

Another special guest for the afternoon was Bill Owen, a long-time Valley Cottage resident who was the public address announcer for the first game of the season between the Braves and the Yankees of the Majors Division. Owen has in the past appeared on ABC’s Wide World of Sports and was a regular fill-in for Howard Cosell at WABC Radio.

Several of the League’s sponsors also had booths outside the field for attendees to visit in between the ceremonies and the first game. One of these sponsors was Rachel Nichols, who just recently started a barbecue sauce business called Rachel’s Love Potions. She stated she would donate 20 percent of her profits from that day’s sales to the league and emphasized the great impact sports can have on children.

“I think that sports are such an important part of a kid’s life,” Nichols said. “[…] We need to push them more into the sports so they stay off the streets and they stay positive.”

Other sponsors in attendance included Valley Cottage Library, M & T Bank, and several baseball and sports camps.

One of the other booths consisted of a Girl Scout troop led by Jen Marraccino, whose husband Joe is a board member for the Little League. Jen Marrraccino noticed that there are no recycling bins on many of the fields used in the League, so players, coaches, and parents have to throw out recyclable materials. So she helped her troop make signs around the field encouraging everyone to either use reusable containers for their drinks (rather than plastic bottles) or take their recyclables home so they can dispose of them properly. The girls were even painting a trash can with a message telling attendees not to throw out recyclable materials, specifically cans or bottles.

The Nyack-Valley Cottage Little League consists of six divisions: Tee Ball, Rookies, International, Minors, Majors, and Juniors. There are around 450 children in the entire league, which is made up of both boys and girls. League Vice President Steve Kramer, who is the longest tenured board member and also a former president of the league,  noted that when the children are younger boys and girls are often placed on the same teams. As the girls get older they then usually switch to softball, but this year there was not enough demand for softball within NVCLL, so those in the league who did want to play were allowed to join Nanuet Little League for the time being.

For the last few years the league began the season with different types of parades that sometimes did not lead directly into a game, according to Joe Marraccino. But after seeing how some other leagues started their seasons, the board members decided to change things up a little, and, Marraccino said, the move was a real success.

“It’s been a while since we did something like this that led into our Majors games, and it seems like people are having a lot of fun. Beautiful day, sunshine, it’s been a great day.”

Players in Nyack-Valley Cottage Little League are residents of the Nyack School District.