By Emma Gonosey
Executive sports editor
Varsity baseball player Addison Lee spends his free time training kids through a middle school boys baseball program called On Demand Athletics. Lee teaches them how to improve skills in pitching, hitting, fielding and leadership.
Lee has been playing baseball since he was four and has been pitching since he was eight. He first learned to pitch with his father, Dennis Lee.
“My dad was my biggest inspiration to start pitching,” Lee said. “We would practice together in the garage where he taught me the fundamentals. I met my first pitching coach after the umpire of my first game came up to me and offered to give me pitching lessons.”
Lee has played baseball for Costa since he was a freshman and has played on varsity since he was a sophomore. Through Costa baseball, Lee met coaches who helped him begin his own coaching career.
“The head of On Demand Athletics is the JV coach at Costa, Andre Van Gerwin,” Lee said. “I asked him if he was still running baseball clinics, and that’s when he offered me a position to come work with him.”
Lee typically trains with the kids two to three times a week, usually for two hours at a time. While he focuses primarily on pitching, he helps the kids with their all-around baseball skills and athleticism as well.
“Usually I work as a pitching coach. I help them develop their pitching mechanics, and I teach them new pitches when they want to learn,” Lee said. “Other than that, I just help prepare them for high school baseball.”
According to Lee, working with this program has changed his outlook on both his life and baseball. He hopes to continue working with the kids until he begins his baseball career at Vassar College.
“It’s really rewarding to give back to the community a little bit,” Lee said. “It also teaches me a lot about myself specifically what I know about baseball, and what I still need to learn.”
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