April 15th, 2008
Brian Heyman
MOUNT VERNON – Danny Bernstein called his mini soccer players from the fourth and fifth grade to midfield on the green carpet at the Sports Underdome. He told them they would be split into four teams at this point in the session and mentioned this would be the finale of their Thursday gatherings.
“No more Thursdays? Until when?” Danny Costa wanted to know.
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The boy from Mount Vernon trudged off to the sideline with the other boys for a water break and said to no one in particular, “I’ll miss being here.”
That’s how a lot of Westchester’s boys and girls from ages 4-14 have come to feel about Bernstein’s Backyard Sports youth program that encompasses basketball in the fall, soccer in the winter and baseball in the spring.
The 46-year-old Scarsdale resident has created a program that’s about developing skills and having fun without the win-at-all-costs mentality. There’s no yelling from the staff, just calm explanations and positive reinforcement.
“I believe the messages that kids get about having to get a college scholarship or having to make an ‘A’ travel team, those messages come from parents,” Bernstein said. “Kids inherently want to play. So what we’ve done with Backyard Sports is we’ve changed the criteria of sports to remind kids to focus on playing and learning to love the game.
“The other thing that we’ve done is we’ve been able to divorce the parents from the process. We’ve done that by creating what I call ‘a safe environment.’ The kids are all given equal playing time. They’re all allowed to experience all the different positions. The parents recognize this. They also recognize the kids are getting exposure to dynamic skills.
“So because the kids aren’t being favored and are getting the correct sports education, the parents are letting go.”
This father of two had been working for 23 years on the sales and manufacturing end in the family business in Manhattan. That would be producing lingerie. Bernstein had been a goalie on a state championship soccer team at Roslyn High and at Division III Amherst. So he finally decided to go in another direction. In 2006, he started this Backyard business, finding his passion.
“I don’t like to think of it as a mid-life crisis for me,” Bernstein said. “I guess it’s a mid-life transition.”
The home office is in White Plains, and the kids play mainly at the Underdome and SUNY Purchase. The cost runs $275-$500 per season, depending on the age group.
“We take time out to make sure the kids are getting life lessons about helping their teammates off the ground and shaking hands after a tough tackle,” said Liz Masterson, a Purchase resident and semipro soccer player in the W-League who coaches for Bernstein.
There are sessions for special-needs children from all over Westchester. Bernstein also brings in at-risk kids from Mount Vernon and White Plains on scholarship and mixes them with kids from more privileged parts like the Rye area, Scarsdale, Harrison and Mamaroneck.
“It’s fun,” said Brian Hutchinson, a 13-year-old from Edward Williams Elementary School in Mount Vernon. “I know that I can come here and play soccer and improve with Danny and (be with) other friends.”
Can’t we all just get along? Yes we can.
“It’s an excellent concept,” said Mount Vernon’s Mary Figueroa, the director of the Westchester Jewish Community Services’ “Amazing Afternoons” after-school program, which has a partnership with Edward Williams. “It expands the horizons of our children.”
On a typical SUNY Purchase Sunday in the soccer season, boys and girls 10-14 play pickup games. This is the one session in which parents aren’t allowed in the gym.
“It’s fine,” said Anthony Argentino, a father of four from Rye Brook. “You can look through the window from above. Parents are too involved anyway.”
Argentino’s 10-year-old son, John, started coming to Bernstein’s soccer sessions in January and just loves them.
“I (have) a lot of fun out of it because there’s no pressure,” he said. “I’m learning a lot. He’s very encouraging. I like how he teaches. He’s always reassuring and never overreacts when somebody makes a mistake. He’s never negative.”