This week, we look at Gary Lendak, who has managed Mayo Realtors for four seasons in Boardman

This week, we look at Gary Lendak, who has managed Mayo Realtors for four seasons in Boardman Community Baseball’s 11-12 boys division.

Q: How long have you been coaching baseball?

A: About 20 years. I coached at Howland High School for 10 years, from 89-99.

Q: When did you start teaching and what subjects?

A: I’ve been teaching at Howland for 21 years — honors world history and U.S. government.

Q: How did a Howland teacher end up in Boardman?

A: My wife Marijo is an Ursuline graduate and teaches in Struthers. I preferred her traveling less than me. We were looking at three or four areas, and Boardman was more epicenter. Boardman reminds me a lot of Howland, except it’s a little bigger.

Q: When did you start coaching your sons?

A: Joseph just turned 15 and Scott is 12. I think Joseph was 6 when he started playing. I’ve always enjoyed being close to baseball so it seemed kind of natural. Being an outsider, not being an indigenous Boardman guy, I kind of wanted to come in quietly. I coached with some really good guys early on — Mike Popio and Dan Gallagher. So I was able to come in incognito a little bit. I was an assistant for a couple of years. And I became more and more involved with it.

Q: What age level do you prefer to coach?

A: I like ages 11-12 the best. It’s probably the most exciting time. The kids are very passionate about what they are doing, the parents are very passionate. Of course, coaching in Boardman is exceptionally rewarding because of the facilities that we have. Sometimes, I think that our kids don’t understand how lucky they are to play in facilities like this. They take it for granted being here most of the time. I like Boardman — it has the politics and the problems that other communities have but I think there is genuinely people here who are willing to listen to change and make decisions and try to improve. And sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn’t. I think the effort is there. I think there are a lot of people who are very committed. Tony Taratino just left for Columbus and they are really going to miss his leadership. But somebody will come in and replace that. There are some really hard-working people here, some with a good business sense. They treat everybody very well here.

Q: What do you get out of coaching Little League players?

A: First of all, I get to be with my kids a lot, which is very enjoyable to me. I don’t know what we’re going to do when they go off to college. I’ve always been a stickler for fundamentals. I love to see kids improve from the time we get them to the time they leave, go off and play in high school or do other things.

Q: Your family life revolves around sports. How does your wife deal with that?

A: She’s fine with it. She comes from a sports-oriented family. Her brother played football in college. They’re Ursuline grads so they’ve been around sports all their lives like I have. We understand it as part of the summer. We don’t vacation until everything is over. We make a lot of sacrifices until baseball is over and then we move on to basketball and other things.