Yorktown Assistant Diving Coach Has Dream Job with Yankees YES Network

Many people across the world root for the 27-time and defending World Series champion New York Yankees, but for most that is where their association with the legendary franchise begins and ends.

That, however, is not the case for Yorktown recreation assistant diving coach Amanda Caputi. Not only is she a lifelong Yankees fan, she is also continuing her family's legacy.

She works as a research assistant for the YES Network, the station that televises the majority of the Yankees games. In addition to Yankees games, the station also broadcasts most games of the New Jersey Nets.

Caputi, 24, said it means the world to her to be able to work for the network. She has rooted for the baseball team her entire life. Her family is from the Bronx, and her parents, aunts and uncles all grew up there.

Her late grandmother worked for the Yankees while Caputi's father was a child. She was the principal switchboard and communications operator as well as Mickey Mantle's stadium secretary.

"We have always just been in love with the team and the tradition," Caputi said. "So many of my favorite memories throughout my life either involve the Yankees or the Yankees were on in the background. The team has been a constant thread throughout my life, so to be able to follow them and have that be my occupation, how I make a living, I couldn't ask for better. It's a dream job."

Caputi, who graduated from Kennedy Catholic High School in 2003 and Seton Hall University in 2007, wanted to work in sports media in any capacity that she could, she said.

"YES actually wasn't launched until '02 but my family absolutely made sure we got the network and watched religiously, which of course we still do," Caputi said.

The Yorktown resident started working for YES as a freelancer in September of '06, and started helping in the research department in the summer of '08 before getting staffed as a research assistant this past December. She works out of the YES studio in Stamford, Connecticut and has a wide-range of responsibilities for both Yankees and Nets games.

She has to stay on top of the story lines, make sure YES doesn't miss anything going on with the team or around the league, and build the graphics for the batting practice, and pre-and post-game shows, she said.

For example, Caputi has gone back through the games on A-Rod's career that he has played on his birthday, July 27, and built the graphic of his career numbers for them.

"I also write the highlights - out of towns or Yankee, Nets (for basketball) for the fourth and seventh inning cut-ins and the BP, pre-and post-game shows," Caputi said. "My in time is six hours before the start of the game and we work through the end of the post-game show, so it's difficult to guess the hours, since baseball doesn't have a clock. Management is great about making sure we get two days off a week, get enough rest and stay fresh."

Caputi said that her love of random facts, trends, sports statistics and writing is what attracted her to her current job.

"I was fortunate enough to be given the opportunity to observe and learn how it's done," Caputi said. "The more I learned the more I realized how valuable a skill research is in every position and I'm fortunate to have the chance to keep learning and improving."

While working for YES is a dream job, Caputi has never forgotten her roots. She grew up swimming and diving for Yorktown's recreation squad.

Caputi is proud she is still involved with the program as an assistant diving coach for Beth Kear, along with fellow assistant Abbi Schenkel, she said.

"Growing up, I always found that loyalty was such a huge thing," Caputi said. "It's always meant a lot to me. So I try to make sure I do that for other people."

One reason why she coaches is to be a role model like Kear was to her when she was younger, Caputi said.

"I love every minute that I have been on the team," she said. "I just wanted to give back to the next generation and try to be half the role model to other kids that Beth was and is to me."

Caputi elaborated further on why it's so important to her to keep coaching even with her hectic schedule with YES.

"Another reason I keep coming back is the opportunity to coach with Abbi Schenkel," Caputi said. "Abbi started diving when I was on my way out of competition. I'm very fortunate to be able to call both Beth and Abbi my friends, she is as talented a coach as she is a diver and person."

Caputi said that she learns daily from both Kear and Schenkel.

"The team has always reinforced the values that I learned as a kid and gives me the chance to practice them and learn more every day, it's unlike any team you'll ever see or be around," Caputi said. "We are a family."