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YSU event joins kids with family, athletes
By Sean Barron
YOUNGSTOWN
Ten-year-old McKenna Dinard connected on every pitch thrown to her during a family-friendly gathering, but organizers hope the event will be a hit when it comes to encouraging closer, long-term family connections.
“I hit five balls in a row,” the Poland Union Elementary School fourth-grader said with pride, referring to one of the activities she took part in that made up Saturday’s Family Fun Day in Youngstown State University’s Stambaugh Stadium.
Sponsoring the two hours of indoor festivities and athletics clinics were YSU and Meridian Community Care.
The fun-day program also promoted Meridian Care’s Families Who Know initiative, which helps parents and their children build closer relationships, increasing the likelihood youngsters will seek their parents’ guidance toward making healthful choices, noted Renee Amacher, Meridian’s director of marketing and development.
In addition, many of YSU’s athletes conducted skills clinics and offered tips and instructions in football, tennis, track and field, volleyball, golf, soccer, baseball and softball.
McKenna has played softball for about four years, mainly second base and shortstop, and enjoys cheerleading. Her experience clearly showed Saturday, when she made solid contact with those consecutive pitches.
Another softball veteran who maintained a firm swing was McKenna’s neighbor and good friend, Shelbi Heid, 9, a Poland Union third-grader.
“I missed one, but got six,” Shelbi said, adding that she’s played softball since she was 6.
Shelbi spends a lot of time with numerous neighbors around her age and said she’s close to her family, including her father, Will Heid, who accompanied her.
After Shelbi and McKenna took their turns, another friend and neighbor, 8-year-old Julia Liddle, gave it her best shot while being instructed on the importance of proper stance at the plate and rotating the hips into the ball.
By her estimate, she successfully hit seven balls, said Julia, who added that the tips made the challenge easier.
One of those doling out such pointers was Nic Manuppelli, a YSU senior civil-engineering major who’s also a pitcher on the Penguins baseball team.
“I’m showing the kids the fundamentals of hitting and running the bases,” Manuppelli said, adding that he also was demonstrating for the kids mainly age 8 to 10 how to position their hands and feet and hold the bat.
Several other youngsters such as 6-year-old Sean Oswald of Howland were practicing hitting forehands and working on other basics of tennis, thanks to several members of YSU’s women’s tennis team.
Looking on was Sean’s father, Daniel Oswald.
Many children learned to get more mileage and speed from their legs, courtesy of Leanna Hartsough and Jessy Parham, both members of the university’s track and field team.
“I got yelled at for letting them run in the [nearby] soccer area,” Parham said with laughter.
Parham, an exercise-science major, also showed several youngsters the correct method for holding a javelin with both hands and close to the face before running and tossing it.
Hartsough, a three-year track-team member, demonstrated a variety of preparatory techniques for sprinting, including crouching before shoving off, then falling and catapulting slightly forward to begin with the most momentum.
In addition, Saturday’s fest featured clowns, inflatable rides and information on preventing substance abuse, promoting positive workplaces and encouraging good parenting.
“Kids face a lot of stuff, whether it’s drugs and alcohol, bullying or social media,” Meridian’s Amacher said, adding that she would like to see a return to family members spending more time talking with one another.