When Steve Sax visited Santa Maria earlier this year, he spoke with more than 300 youth and community leaders over the course of a few days. Now, with the end of 2015 quickly approaching, the baseball legend is returning to the area. He’ll share updates on his youth mentoring program offered through the Steve Sax Foundation, give some insight into what’s on the horizon for 2016, and serve as the guest of honor in the annual Santa Maria Rotary’s Christmas Parade of Lights.
“It should be a lot of fun and a good opportunity to spread the word about the foundation,” Sax said about the honor of serving in the parade.
He’ll also speak to about 1,200 teens at Santa Maria High School during his two-day visit. “We hope to reach out to many more people at a meet-and-greet that we have scheduled for the evening of Dec. 4 at Cugini’s Pizzeria,” he said.
Sax spent 14 years playing Major League Baseball—from 1981 to 1994 he played for the L.A. Dodgers, New York Yankees, Chicago White Sox, and Oakland Athletics. Using his influence as a worldwide athletic legend, he developed the Steve Sax Foundation with the intent to help bring about much-needed changes in American youth by offering mentoring and life coaching opportunities.
Key issues addressed through the program include peer pressure, choices, setting goals, interacting appropriately with the opposite sex, and more. By developing a wide variety of interpersonal skills, youth have a better chance at succeeding in life—and success in life is the goal that the foundation has for all of the youth involved.
The six-month program, offered online at stevesaxfoundation.org, gives participants the chance to learn how other youth have benefited from the program and to understand how to deal with various issues and challenges by exposure to the mentoring process. In essence, by seeing that other youth nationwide are often dealing with similar challenges and struggles in life, the hope is that participants will put things into perspective, learn, and move forward in a positive manner.
“The amount of participants is increasing in a steady fashion, from Santa Maria to Los Angeles to Chicago,” Sax said.
Youth who complete the program are eligible to receive a college scholarship. Program completion requires teens to attend 90 percent of the sessions, perform 20 hours of community service, and write a paper on the importance of college.
Although not free, there are discounts offered for the online program for signing up a second child, sibling, or friend. According to Sax, no teens are turned away for an inability to pay.
During his earlier trip this year, Sax added the first set of teen ambassadors, or Sax’s Sluggers, to the Santa Maria chapter of the foundation. Currently, about half a dozen teens are helping with various aspects of the foundation.
“They assist at events, help promote the foundation in the schools and amongst friends, and also help provide feedback on topics for discussion that I can focus on during the mentoring sessions,” Sax said.
In addition to his newfound teen fans, adult fans of Sax have been following his career for years and have become involved with his foundation. Ryan Heath, recreation supervisor for the city of Santa Maria, currently serves on the board of advisors for the Steve Sax Foundation and considers working with the baseball legend “a privilege.”
“He was my favorite player growing up, and now I have had the privilege of working with and developing a friendship with him,” Heath said.
Together, Heath and Sax are working with the Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation to enroll nearly 2,000 of their youth into the foundation in spring 2016. Currently, five volunteers from the foundation’s board of advisors—including Heath—in various states assist Sax in promoting, marketing, and getting the word out about the foundation.
Locally, Steve Sax Foundation volunteers have been working with the Rotary Clubs of Santa Maria and PLAY Inc. and have been able to bring the mentoring message to students in the Santa Maria-Bonita School District, the Orcutt Union School District, and now the Santa Maria Joint Union High School District.
In 2016, Sax has plans to continue traveling the country and maintaining his satellite radio broadcasts. As for the foundation, staff and volunteers are looking forward to expanding on what Sax calls, “a very successful first year.”
“We look forward to continuing to increase enrollment and spread awareness across the country,” Sax said, “and I look forward to developing partnerships with the Boys and Girls Club of Chicago and the Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation.”
Plans are in the works to bring the athletic legend back to Santa Maria in spring 2016 to conduct a baseball clinic. In the meantime, Sax is eager to meet new friends and share his mentoring message and positive thoughts with the people of Santa Maria during his visit.
For more information on the Santa Maria chapter of the Steve Sax Foundation, including Sax’s Sluggers teen ambassador program, contact Ryan Heath at 266-4125 or ryan@stevesaxfoundation.org.
This week’s sports coverage was by Meagan Friberg. You can contact her through Editor Shelly Cone at scone@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Dec 3-10, 2015.
