Mothers play key roles in youth sports

This season, Mary Beth Curley is in her first full year as an East Lynn Little League board member. As the league information officer, she is responsible for upkeep of the league Web site, gathering information and making sure it is updated. One of the players in the program is her 10-year-old son, Devin.”I always helped out in something,” Curley said. “My sons are in a lot of different sports. This is the one they enjoy most, and we knew the most people.”Curley is one of many Lynn mothers with children in youth sports who support their young athletes by volunteering their time – whether on the field, at a concession stand, as a fund-raiser, or as a fan in the bleachers. Mother’s Day, which Americans celebrated on Sunday, can serve as a moment to remember the role of mothers in youth sports such as baseball, where Little League and Babe Ruth play began recently.Ryan Boisselle, the president of East Lynn Little League, praised Curley for her role on the board this season.”She’s gotten information out to our coaches and has been great during fund-raisers, including a bowl-a-thon two weeks before Opening Day,” he said. “She just has a great touch. She’s enormous to our board and to the kids in our league ? Hopefully, she’ll be a part of our league for many years.”Boisselle also said that there are two mothers at the upper minor level, where he coaches, who are actively involved with two of the four teams, “in the dugout helping with the book.”Mothers also support their children by cheering them on at games.”In our league, there are more females than fathers,” Boisselle said, noting that this may be due in part to fathers being on the field coaching.Jim Beliveau, of Greater Lynn Babe Ruth baseball, said that this holds true for the parents of the almost 400 athletes in his program, who are older than the Little Leaguers.”Most of the fathers coach,” he said. “Mom’s sitting there in the chair with a blanket in the freezing cold.”Beliveau also said that mothers may show support through different means than fathers.”They make sure their kids have water and Gatorade,” he said. “Dads could care less. (Mothers) are slipping food through the dugout. Dads could care less.”There is also the task of getting children to and from practices and games.For Curley, this is a challenge in itself, especially with two sons who play sports: Devin, 10, and Ryan, 7.”It’s just keeping track of the kids,” she said. “There’s a calendar – we keep track of who goes where when. The biggest thing is meals, healthy meals, before they go to bed.”She said she tries to get to as many games as she can. When there is a conflict between her sons’ games, she goes to Ryan’s and her husband, Steve, goes to Devin’s. (Steve is Devin’s coach.)”We make sure they get to where they need to go,” she said.Judy Bower, the current Greater Lynn Babe Ruth softball player agent, experienced being a mother and a coach over a decade ago. She was both a coach and umpire in Wyoma Little League, where her daughter, Jennifer Garvey, played softball. The Babe Ruth program eventually drafted Garvey, and Bower joined the program in 1998, coaching her daughter’s team with two other women.These days, Bower said, “parents are very, very active with games. They’re always at the field watching games. They do a lot of fund-raising, especially at tournament time ? Sometimes, a lot of coaches ask a mother to do phone calling and so forth. It takes time.”Both Curley and Bower were out on Mother’s Day. Curley called the day a quiet one, standing out in the cold watching a flag football game. As for Bower, she got to enjoy the experience of being a grandmother when she made a surprise visit to her daughter.”She’s a mother herself,” she said, “of a three-month-old. I’m sure my granddaughter will be having some sports (experience) – softball, basketball, whatever it may be. She loves sports on TV.”