Christian Ortiz knew there was a necessity for an inner-city baseball program to assist youngsters get observed with the eventual aim to play school or professionally.
The former O’Bryant baseball participant started Next Level Boston Sports, a nonprofit group that gives low-income, internal metropolis athletes the chance to make use of sports activities as a gateway to achieve a better schooling and play on the subsequent degree. This previous season alone, 13 inner-city youngsters from his program will likely be enjoying school baseball.
“This isn’t about me, this is about helping kids from the city find a way to play baseball at college,” mentioned Ortiz, who graduated from Northeastern with a level in Entrepreneurship and later obtained his Masters in sports activities management from there. “I noticed how powerful it was for my brother (Wilfredo) and my mom (Maritza Juliao) was shedding her thoughts as a result of it was costing her 1000’s of {dollars}.
“The quality just wasn’t there for kids in the city. When I started Next Level, the goal was to help inner city kids have an opportunity and find them a college to play at if that’s what they wanted.”
From this system’s inception in 2014, Next Level Baseball has grown to change into one of many higher organizations as a number of high-profile recruits have come from right here. Joshua Baez performed for Ortiz at Snowden earlier than transferring to Dexter Southfield and was drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals within the second spherical of the 2021 MLB Draft, signing for greater than $2 hundreds of thousands.
Ivan Arias adopted the same path to Ortiz. He attended Dexter Southfield, change into a extremely recruited prospect, committing to school baseball energy Vanderbilt. Another metropolis child, Harold Coll performed at Cathedral and is presently on the University of Arkansas.
Then there may be former O’Bryant standout Fernando Burgos, who attended UMass-Boston and have become the varsity’s all-time chief in wins. Joel Lara, who performed for Ortiz at Snowden, is a senior outfielder at Franklin Pierce, the place he has a profession common of .299.
“I’ve always believed there is talent in the city,” mentioned Ortiz, who took the Boston English job final 12 months. “These kids just need someone to help him and we’re trying to do that. Even though we started the program in 2014, we’re still growing and learning.”
This 12 months alone, Ortiz has 13 gamers in his program who will likely be enjoying school baseball: Justin Peguero (University of Dayton), Franklin Sierra (Keene State), David Ballenilla (Central Arizona), Braylin Gonzalez (Eastern Nazarene College), Randy Guzman (Central Connecticut State), Jefferson Soto (Worcester State), Brennan Shapiro (John Hopkins), Ruben Diaz (Southern New Hampshire), John Hernandez (San Jacinto), Jeffrey Valdez (Siena), Diego Tavares (Johnson and Wales), AJ Montero (Framingham State) and Nanfer Duarte (UMass-Boston).
“We just want people to know that the players and coaching staff are working hard year round to help change the lives of inner city kids,” Ortiz mentioned. “We’ve improved at getting the children the right publicity, who to name and what to anticipate.
“I feel there is a college for every kid and that’s been the mission.”
Source: www.bostonherald.com
