I was at one particular health center recently where the lift was broken. For those of you who may be unaware, a lift is another name for an elevator. There happened to be a group of students in the building getting a little real life experience as they hoped to work in healthcare in the future, and they, like everyone else, had to wait for the lift to come.

After what seemed like forever, it finally arrived and, after those who were coming down got off, several of the students started to get on the lift. The only problem was that there were four people in wheelchairs who were residents of the facility who were also waiting to get on and go up to their various floors, and not only did the students not help them get on, but the students filed into the elevator so quickly that there was no room for the patients in the wheelchairs. I had to say something and I did as I called out, “My dear students, our job here is not to lift ourselves up. Our job is to lift others.”

We hear so much about those who pull others down that I thought it would be uplifting to hear a true story of brothers who literally and figuratively lift each other up. Hunter Gandee is only 14 years of age. He is not a huge lad, but he is a big brother. And I think maybe he is the kind of big brother that all of us would like to have or to be.

You see, Hunter has a 7-year-old kid brother named Braden and Braden has a G-d awful time lifting himself up. In fact, he has trouble controlling even the simplest of movements as he suffers from Cerebral Palsy. So how does this little one get around? Well, his favorite mode of transportation is his brother’s back as, since he was a toddler, his big brother Hunter would lift him piggy back style and take him wherever he wanted to go.

Hunter happens to be on his school’s wrestling team. In fact, he is the captain of the team and he is also the president of his junior high’s student council. While he wants to have the ref at each of his matches lift his arm up in victory, he also wants to make sure to lift his brother up and make him victorious.

And while Hunter is busy lifting up his little brother, don’t think that it is a one -way street. Hunter will be the first to tell you that when he is in the midst of one of his wrestling matches, his kid brother Bradon is always in the front row, and just knowing that he is there, rooting him on, lifts him up and gives him that extra boost. So there you are two brothers who lift each other up as one wrestles on the mat and the other wrestles with Cerebral Palsy.

We all wrestle with something. May we have the good sense to learn from these two most loving of brothers; may we lift each other up and, as we do, may we realize that in so doing, we also are lifted ever higher.

Shalom my friends,

Rabbi Craig H. Ezring

Rabbi Ezring is a member of the National Association of Jewish Chaplains and of the Association of Professional Chaplains, He works professionally in this capacity with a number of healthcare facilities in the area, and with hospice. He is the Spiritual Leader of Temple Beth Israel of Deerfield Beach.

By Dave Montalbano

http://cinemadave.livejournal.com

The modestly budgeted The Fault in Our Stars provided a wide return of investment compared to the much hyped, big budgeted Tom Cruise vehicle Edge of Tomorrow. Given the manic energy and huge production costs of Summer blockbusters like Godzilla, X-Me: Days of Future Past and The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Hollywood is examining “little” dramas like The Fault in Our Stars.

Words and Pictures opens tomorrow and this film qualifies as a “little” drama. The pace is deliberate, but not slow. The story features two strong protagonists who suffer from illness, but features some gorgeous cinematography. As a writer, I could not but feel that the “Words” people were given short shhrift compared to the “Picture” people. After all, the “Words” leader is personified by Professor Jack Marcus (Clive Owen – who looks like he is revisiting “Ernie” from his award-winning movie Hemingway & Gellhorn), while “Pictures” is represented by Professor Dina Delsanto (the lovely Juliette Binoche).

Professor Marcus is a scoundrel, but a charming one. Professor Delsanto is the Ice Queen with a warm heart. The two bicker and defend what is more important, “Words” or “Pictures?” A philosophical war is declared, with the outcome being decided by the student body of an Ivy League prep school.

The head games between Binoche and Owen are a delight to watch and listen to too. Being adults, the two strike each other like a fire poker, but know when to cool off in a moment of serious crisis. One sees both professors’ professionalism rise to the occasion when two students are involved with harassment charges.

Near the end, Words and Pictures suffers from a scene of over-the-top melodrama. However, the conclusion works and that is all that matters.

The best thing about this film is watching two artists overcome their own handicaps. While Clive Owen presents an easy vice – vodka and lime – Juliette Binoche’s character suffers from rheumatoid arthritis. Words and Pictures is a worthy alternative to over produced and over hyped Summer Blockbuster

By Gary Curreri

Residents have an opportunity to take advantage of World Cup soccer fever this summer as the Simply Soccer camp returns for its 26th year in Coral Springs.

Soccer camp is for boys and girls, ages 5-14, of all skill levels, who will be taught a variety of soccer skills from dribbling to shooting. Simply Soccer, the longest running soccer camp offered by the city, will be held at Mullins Park behind the Coral Springs gymnasium. There won’t be a similar camp this year in Pompano Beach.

There are three sessions each day ranging from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.; extended hours from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Tiny Tot program for ages 5 and 6 from 9 a.m. to noon. Full day campers must bring a soccer ball, swimsuit, shin guards, water bottle and lunch.

Dates are June 9-13, 16- 20, 23-27; July 7-11, 14-18, 21-25, 28-Aug. 1; Aug. 4-8, 11-15.

For information, call 954- 345-2200.

ELY WINS IN JENKIN’S DEBUT

Blanche Ely High School ended its spring football contest against visiting Miami Jackson on a high note as it chalked up an impressive 31-14 victory.

The Tigers’ star basketball player, Therrell Gosier, who has been turning heads off the basketball court and on the football fi eld this spring, didn’t disappoint. He caught two passes totaling 55 yards on the team’s fi rst drive to set up a 1-yard run by Teddrick Moffett for a 7-0 lead, and added a 3-yard TD catch for a 14-0 fi rst quarter lead.

“I’m just trying to help my team win a state title,” Gosier said after the game. He is being heavily sought after by Clemson, West Virginia and Nebraska, among others. “I’m looked at as the leader of the receiving corps. I think my ability to stretch the fi eld will mean a lot. It will give our slot guys more room to work with, open the fi eld.”

After Miami Jackson cut the lead in half on a 75-yard TD run by Desmond Phillips, Ely put the game away on a 28-yard scoring toss to Ladderick Smith and rolled to the win to give fi rst year head football coach Nakia Jenkins some momentum heading into the season.

Jenkins said the Tigers wouldn’t be doing too many 7-on-7 tournaments during the summer heading into the school year.

“I really don’t believe in them too much because, to me, it throws you off a little bit because your quarterback needs to get used to an offensive line,” said Jenkins, who said his team will be a part of the 7th Annual Miami Dolphins 7-on-7 High School Football Tournament presented by Under Armour and the National Guard from June 13-15.

“They have been great to us the last few years,” Jenkins said. “We may do one or two local ones, but my focus is to get my seniors in some camps so they can get looked at so the kids don’t fall through the cracks. The camps are really big to give them some notoriety.”

POMPANO SOFTBALL TO WRAP UP SEASON

Continental will play the International squad in the city of Pompano Beach’s Men’s Thursday night softball league championship on June 5 at 7 p.m.

A win by the International squad would give the team the title, while a loss to Continental would force an 8:15 p.m. winner-take-all contest.

Levinson Jewelers/Jacks Hamburger won the Men’s Softball A Division playoff bracket with a 19-7 victory over Lifetime Kia.

A new competitive league will be starting soon, and games will be played on Monday nights at the Four Fields Complex in Pompano Beach.

“Any bat will be allowed and a pitching screen will be placed in front of the pitcher for protection,” said Bobbi Palat, a recreation leader for the city. “Twelve home runs will be allowed.”

The fee is $400 for residents and $500 for non-residents. There will be a 12-game season with a double-elimination tournament at the conclusion of the regular season. The winning team will receive a free entry into next season.

Leagues are also starting for Tuesday and Wednesday nights. It will be the same entry fee of $400 (residents) and $500 (non-residents). There will be a free entry into the league for next season and there will be two separate brackets for playoffs.

For more information, contact Palat at 954-786-4119.

(On left): Cinema Dave meets Heather Langenkamp

By Dave Montalbano

http://cinemadave.live journal.com

Like last year’s The Lone Ranger, Maleficent was skewered by urban elitist film critics upon release. Much like the recent release of Mom’s Night Out, there is a disparity between public perception and mainstream critics. With $69 million box office revenue, Maleficent proves that everything old is new again.

At a recent Spooky Empire convention [May-Hem, held May 30-June, 1 in Orlando], Grumpy himself — actor Lee Arenberg from the television show Once Upon a Time- addressed this disparity.

“You do not know how much power the fans hold. Critics had judged The Lone Ranger even before it was released. Studios are putting more emphasis on computer metadata as generated by the fans.

While Walt Disney studios is best known for their animated fairy tales, the studios recent adaptations have taken on a darker tone. Last summer, the Magic Kingdom was forced to close their gates on “Villain’s Day” due to overcrowding. With this emphasis upon villainy, one has to ask “Do heroes matter?”

Best known for playing Freddy Krueger’s arch nemesis “Nancy” in The Nightmare on Elm Street franchise, actress Heather Langenkamp addresses this question in her documentary, I am Nancy. Featuring writer/director Wes Craven and Freddy Krueger himself, Robert Englund, Langenkamp asks the question, “Why Freddymania and not Nancymania?”

I am Nancy is a poignant documentary that is fan-based. The fans who Heather interviews come from all walks of life, i.e. doctors, lawyers, children, paraplegics, hearing impaired, victims of domestic violence. While most people agree that Freddy Krueger is “cool,” most people are really “Nancy.”

Instead of being a victim (for whatever reasons), Nancy chooses not to empower evil.

Langenkamp knows her success; she’s happily married with kids, owns her own business and acts occasionally. She definitely understands that fine line between fantasy and reality.

Fairy tales, villains and monsters like Maleficent have been with us since the dawn of time. Through history, one sees how each generation interprets these stories. These interpretations often reflect a culture in decline or on the rise. As Langenkamp says at the end of her documentary, “Be Nancy.”

(On left): Cinema Dave meets Godzilla.

By Emily Rosen

ERosen424@aol.com

Addiction is a terrible thing. And pretty much everybody who understands it will admit that it takes great strength and determination to beat it. It’s pretty easy to just say: Get over it – or you can stop if you want to – but alas – the psycho-emotional component is a trap hard to escape.

So, there’s liquor, drugs, food and cigarettes and any number of “fetishy” things, and I’m here to report on how I found the best cure for my particular addiction(s). In a few words, I am addicted to “excess;” as in, if one (of anything) is good, two is better and three is ideal … and one addiction is not enough, combined with the inability to throw anything away, a penchant for collecting pens, elephants, old matchbooks and print articles of particular interest to me, and letters (remember letters?), and a compulsion to shop anything that says “Buy one, Get one Free.” Know ye well that this does not augur well when in the process of downsizing one’s living quarters by about 2000 square ft.

Thus, the cure … Take away that 2000 sq. ft.of living space for starters – and for sure there is some physics theory that says something to the effect that there is a limit to how much solid stuff can actually fit into a specific amount of space. And so the “tossing party” begins. We – I say “we,” but it is actually only me – “do” categories: Saving … donate … give away … sell … garbage. And here, of course, is where I break the addiction.

And then a funny thing happened to me. I became obsessed with the “garbage” category. And furiously did I dump the junk of my life, what I had thought to be the sustenance of my life — the stuff that I would have been too embarrassed to give away, donate, and certainly would not expect to sell. Why did I save this? Why did I acquire it in the first place?

You can call it cold turkey. That’s how I eliminated about 90 percent of my worldly possessions. Ah, but wait.

Then came the move — and there is still too much – and now I am dealing with having to eliminate about 90 percent of what is left – resorting to the same categories.

Soon, this torture will end. Soon, I will be settled in with just the right amount of “stuff.” And, already, I can see how effective the cure was. Retailers, marketers, hawkers of various wares, all of you out there, I give you fair warning. I am not your patsy any more. If I don’t need it, I don’t buy it. And if I need it, I buy only one.

I feel like a new person. I have shed my stuff. It’s better than taking a bath. It feels so good.

About a month before Shavuot began, a Director of Therapeutic Recreation, wanting to make the festival special for the Jewish residence, asked me what things she should get for the holiday. In fact, she went further than that. We have been working together for some time now, and she said that she knew that, on Passover, we have a Seder. She knew that, on Chanukah, we have the Menorah. She knew that, on Rosh Hashana, we blow the Shofar. She knew that, on Sukkoth, we build a hut or booth. And then, she admitted to me that, for the life of her, she couldn’t remember what we do for Shavuot.

Many of you might be in the same boat as she was. Many of you might not remember what we have for Shavuot, and there is a good reason for that. There are no distinctive things like that for Shavuot.

So, of course, we switched to looking at special foods for the festival. She knew that Chanukah was a time for latkes or jelly donuts. She knew that Passover was a time for Matzah. She knew that Rosh Hashana was a time for apples and honey. And she knew that Yom Kippur was a time of fasting. But again, what about Shavuot?

And, come to think of it, why do we have this food or that food for the various holidays?

The latkes and jelly donuts that are eaten on Chanukah are fried in oil, thus reminding us of the miracle of the oil. The matza on Passover reminds us of how, in our haste to leave Egypt, we did not have time to wait for the bread to rise so we ate the unleavened bread. The apples and honey eaten on the New Year are a way of wishing one another a very fruitful and a sweet year ahead.

So what do we eat on Shavuot? On Shavuot, we traditionally eat dairy foods and, of all of them, there is one particular one that stands out. I am referring to a delectable little thing filled with “yumminess” (yes, I made up the word)… a blintz.

A blintz is a little crepe-like edible filled with cheese. (And for those of you who are lactose intolerant, you can now get them filled with Tofu). Oddly enough, if you take two blintzes and put them side by side, they take on the shape of the Torah, and Shavuot happens to be the time in which we celebrate the giving of the Torah.

The Rabbis have long asked those under their tutelage why we say the “giving” of the Torah, instead of the “acceptance” or the “receiving” of the Torah. And one of the answers given is that on each and every given day of our lives, at each and every moment, we have to decide if we accept the yoke of the Torah into our lives or not. I think that is why I like the term “receiving” of the Torah. So many times I have been asked, “Did you receive my message?”

Getting the message is important. Hearing the message is important. Reading the message is important. But in the end, after all is said and done, it is in the doing that we bring the Torah to life; and as they sang so beautifully in Fiddler on the Roof; “L’Chaim, L’Chaim, To Life!”

Shalom my friends, Chag Sameach,

Rabbi Craig H. Ezring

Rabbi Ezring is a member of the National Association of Jewish Chaplains and of the Association of Professional Chaplains, He works professionally in this capacity with a number of healthcare facilities in the area, and with hospice. He is the Spiritual Leader of Temple Beth Israel of Deerfield Beach.

By Gary Curreri

Blanche Ely first year head football coach Nakia Jenkins hopes he has the perfect recipe for success this season.

The first ingredient was discipline. The other things added into the mix will come from the players – hard work and determination.

Jenkins, 38, who was named interim coach for the spring workouts, hopes that label will be gone by the first week of the season.

Jenkins, originally from Belle Glade where he played with former NFLers Fred Taylor and Reidel Anthony at Glades Central High School, started as the offensive coordinator in 2004 at Blanche Ely and returned to the school last year in the same capacity after the team started 0-4. He was the offensive coordinator at his alma mater in 2006-2007 when the team won the Class 3A state championship.

Blanche Ely has made it to the state championship game twice when it finished second in 1987 losing to Tallahassee Godby, 31-3, in the Class 4A game before winning in 2002 in the Class 5A game when it defeated Wharton, 22-10.

This is where I have been off and on.

“This is like being home in Belle Glade,” Jenkins said. “This is like home to me. I like the community. I like what I see. I like the environment. I love it. They want what is best for the kids and I do too.

“We went on a run last year and ended up being district champs,” said Jenkins, who succeeds Charles Hafley as head coach. The team defeated West Boca, 44-20, in the first round of the Class 7A playoffs last year before falling in the regional semifinals to the eventual state champion Dwyer, 49-7.

“We wound up 6-6 and the job just kind of fell in my hands,” Jenkins said. “Coach (Malcolm) Spence (the school’s assistant principal) and Mr. (Karlton) Johnson (the school’s principal) are great friends of mine and I respect those guys to the fullest. They are doing an incredible job here trying to get everything going in the right direction. I got a phone call from them and they said, ‘Coach, we want you to take over the team on an interim basis,’ and, of course, I said, ‘Yes.’ I don’t have to prove myself. They know what I bring to the table. They know I bring discipline first and foremost. I treat the players like they are my own kids.”

Jenkins is relying on several key players this upcoming season, including Therrell Gosier, a 6ft., 7in., 210lb. receiver, who is being highly recruited; Kevin Williams (CB/FS), already committed to West Virginia; wide receivers Laderrick Smith, Thomas Geddis and Terrance Henley, a senior CB. The Tigers also added cornerback George Heck, a transfer from Northeast. They will all be seniors in the fall. (CB).

Junior quarterback Teddrick Moffet will be the key, however.

“He is a three-year starter,” Jenkins said. “He is the anchor of our offense. He is not that tall (5-10), but plays like he is 6-5. He has a great arm.”

Jenkins said the team would have won more games last season if it were disciplined so that has been his focus since he took over. He also brought back long-time Broward County coach Carl Wilburn to be his assistant head coach and defensive coordinator.

“He has been coaching in Broward County for 30 years and, like me, he’s a disciplinarian,” Jenkins said. “Carl is a guy I look up to. We lost some kids from last year, but the coaches I brought in know these kids and have a good relationship with them. I think that was really big for us.”

Jenkins said he also realizes there are expectations from the community. Blanche Ely has produced 12 players – third most in Florida, who has been drafted by the National Football League, including this year’s selection of Jabari Price by the Minnesota Vikings in the seventh round.

“There is no pressure,” Jenkins said. “My motto has always been getting the most out of the kids. Ely has never been a football school. They have won some ball games, but for us to get in the playoffs and win a state championship would be huge. That would be the exclamation point.”

“A lot of people know me in the community and they want to see what I have done and what changes I have made,” Jenkins added. “We have great support. We have a booster club now that we haven’t had in a number of years. The support from the community has been great to this point, and I couldn’t ask for anything better, so my return to them is win some ball games. They are going to put the time in for the kids, and it is a good situation, and the best I can do is win some games.”

By Dave Montalbano

cinemadave.livejournal.com

Since Mother’s Day, there has been a film that has quietly earned 9 million dollars, 10 percent of what X-Men: Days of Future Past has earned over Memorial Day weekend. Produced by Patricia Heaton and David Hunt, Moms’ Night Out cost 5 million to produce and has earned a nice profit before DVD/Blu-ray release. This film did not have a multimillion dollar budget. While urban elitist critics have shredded the film, it ranks 90 percent on the audience rating on RottenTomatoes.com.

The plot is very simple. A church group of females decide to let their husbands and boyfriends babysit the kids. Things go awry for the mothers, who end up in renegade taxicabs, tattoo parlors and jail. The set-up for each gag is well-executed and the comedy ensemble players (Patricia Heaton, Trace Adkins, Sean Astin, Sarah Drew) pull it off with much heart. Remember Moms’ Night Out on home video next Mother’s Day.

X-Men: Days of Future Past is one of the most anticipated ensemble superhero moves in two years since Marvel’s The Avengers. Beyond recruiting the old ensemble cast with the young ensemble cast (XMen: First Class), the X-Men franchise reinstated director Bryan Singer, who directed the first two movies. Days of Future Past is a title with double entendre for the XMen franchise.

The new movie opens 10 years into the future. Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), Storm (Halle Berry), Magneto (Ian McKellen) and Professor X (Patrick Stewart) are under siege from the Sentinels – robot predators whose original goal was to eliminate XMen mutants. Professor X hypothesizes a strategy to send Wolverine to 1973 and prevent the manufacturing of Sentinels.

Upon waking up in 1973, Wolverine meets young Professor X (James McAvoy) and his arch enemy, young Magneto (Michael Fassbender). The three travel to the Paris Peace Accords to prevent Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) from assassinating Bolivar Trask (Peter Dinklage), the Sentinel’s mastermind.

Like X-Men: First Class, X-Men: Days of Future Past takes a historic time and attempts to present a “mutant back story.” Whereas First Class focused on the Cuban Missile Crisis, Days of Future Past over reaches with stories about the Kennedy Assassination, the Vietnam War and Richard Nixon. While visually interesting, the climax on the White House lawn involving Richard Nixon breaks the 4th wall of verisimilitude.

It would help to see the previous six X-Men movies to appreciate the details and nuances of X-Men: Days of Future Past. The new movie is fun , but it falls short of high expectations.

Paul was in Athens the first century after the resurrection. Athens was a center of Greek philosophy at the time. Men like Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, philosophers from days gone by, had an enduring legacy. There were massive buildings and a population of several hundred thousand people. The culture valued human reason and intellectual reflection. I imagine intellects milling around like C-Span junkies in the courtyards in search of debates. I also imagine Starbucks on every corner …

Enter this little unsophisticated man named Paul with his ragged clothes. He walked alone unnoticed in the midst of stoics, philosophers and poets. He must have felt out-of-place, but he had world changing news to share.

The Book of Acts tells us how:

22Paul stood in front of the Areopagus and said, “Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way. 23 For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, ‘To an unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. 24 The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands, 25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things. 26 From one ancestor, he made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, 27 so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for him and find him – though, indeed, he is not far from each one of us. 28 For ‘In him we live and move and have our being;’ as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we too are his offspring.”

[Acts 17: 22 – 28]

Paul offers us a clinic on how not to be intimidated.

Some people are naturally more easily intimidated than others. We don’t exactly have equal doses of confidence. Some folks camouflage their feelings better than others too. My wife recently met with her doctoral committee to discuss her dissertation research. The purpose of the meeting was to establish the parameters of her research. Her research had to be approved in advance by people who have done this before who, by the way, are the same people who will approve it or disapprove it when the research is finished. Her situation was intimidating!

We’ve all been intimidated at one time or another, but should followers of Christ be intimidated? The short answer is “No.”

Paul offers a great character portrait of “If God be for us, then who can stand against us?”

Paul looks at his surroundings and gathers the confidence that comes with knowing who he is and whose he is; and he receives the assurance that comes with finding his purpose in Christ.

We can read the story about Paul in Athens and marvel at what Paul did and think, “Wow. I could never do that.” But Paul’s message is not really about preaching in Athens. Paul’s message is about Christ’s followers overcoming intimidating situations living out our faith wherever we are because we have world-changing news to share.

Join us for worship this Sunday at 10 a.m. at Community Presbyterian Church of Deerfield Beach (Steeple on the Beach), located five blocks south of Hillsboro on AIA.

Our worship focus is “Do Not Be Intimidated” based on Acts 17.

By Gary Curreri

Zion Lutheran first-year coach Ray Ayala said his baseball team exceeded expectations this season.

The Lions (16-10-1) recently completed their season with a hardfought, 10-4 loss in 11- innings against visiting Miami Brito last week.

Miami Brito Miami scored six runs in the top of the 11th inning to snap a 4-4 tie as the Panthers won the Region 4-2A final and denied the Lions their first trip to the state semifinals in school history for the second consecutive season.

Zion Lutheran lost 11-0 to the eventual state champion, Westwood Christian, in the Class 2A regional finals last season. Jose Rodriguez pitched six innings in relief of Lions’ starter Blayne Baker to keep Zion Lutheran in the game. The team rallied from a 4-1 deficit to force extra innings with three runs in the bottom of the sixth. Ivan Ortiz’s RBI single tied the game at 4-4.

“We were very fortunate to get it tied,” said first year Lions coach Ray Ayala, who came over from Somerset Academy this season. “We had some opportunities, but we didn’t get it done.”

There were only two players back from last year’s team (Baker and Manny Rojas). Baker finished the season 6-4 on the mound, while Rojas batted .509 for the season and led the team with 35 RBI.

“We played in two early season tournaments and went 0-6-1 in them,” Ayala said. “Honestly, if you go back to February, you will see we had a whole bunch of individuals. I put them in over their heads. It took us three months to become a family and we had won nine in a row since then. We had to find a way to have them come together.”

“When I first took a look at it, I thought there was something to build there,” Ayala said. “There was nothing there. The cupboard was bare so to speak. I figured two to three years we could build something. As you can see, we moved at a little bit faster pace.”

Ortiz, who was a catcher at Olympic Heights last season, joined the team this season along with shortstop Jose Rodriguez and outfielder Joseph Renovales, who came over from Coral Glades High School.

“They all know each other from playing summer ball together,” Ayala said. “We inherited five other kids from other schools.”

Ayala said the slow start showed the team there was work to do.

“It made us realize that one through nine we weren’t better than anybody,” Ayala said. “If we played as a team, we could beat anybody. That’s where all of our losses came from and that was the turning point going through those tournaments learning that we could not win individually; we could only win collectively; once we stopped worrying about stats and worrying about who plays, our practices became more geared toward team drills and we were successful as a team and turned the corner.”

Ayala believes the program has a bright future. Ayala said parents who are interested in bringing their sons to the program are already contacting him.

“I am already getting calls of interest,” Ayala said. “Parents are getting calls from other parents and telling them they want to switch schools, so that is definitely getting us on the map. We are getting a reputation that we play hard and I am fair to the kids.