MISSION:

The mission of Winning Beyond Winning is to address the needs of children and aspiring athletes of all ages, amateur and professional, through career preparation and all phases of their careers, including preparing them for life after sports, how to be independent of drugs and/or alcohol, and to place special emphasis on the benefits of competing beyond just winning.

Click here for WBW's detailed mission statement

RATIONALE:

Consistent with that mission, Winning Beyond Winning, formed in 1998, has addressed over 40,000 young athletes since its inception and continues to seek opportunities to deliver clinics and presentations.  While clinics and speeches have allowed Winning Beyond Winning to reach many young athletes, it is the Cross-Training for Life Curriculum we have been developing which is at the heart of Winning Beyond Winning.  Sports and athletics, along with competition, each have an important place in American society.  Teaching our children how to train, how to stay in shape, how to play, how to compete and how to win are all very important components of life in America today.  We need a generation that is fit, that knows how to be disciplined enough to train, that knows how to compete, and that knows how to win.  But we also need a generation that knows:

1.     the importance of education;

2.     how to cope with loss;

3.     how to make it in life off the playing field;

4.     how to accept their personal best;

5.     how to raise a family;

6.     how to prepare for their financial future;

7.     how to steer clear of the pull of alcohol and drugs

We also need to reach the parents and coaches of today’s young athletes.   They must understand and accept the philosophy and psychology of coaching, the dangers of increasing the pressure to win at all costs, and the correct way to handle young athletes.

Today’s young athletes receive training unparalleled by anything that older athletes received and have technology and resources available to them unknown just several years ago.  That has made for faster stronger athletes.  However, they have also been exposed to a worldwide sports mentality that tells them: Winning is the only thing that counts, at all costs, and when you are a winner you will make millions of dollars a year, drive very expensive cars, and be allowed to get away with actions that cause the average person much grief.  Sports pages and front pages are replete with stories of star athletes who have failed drug tests or who have been arrested for drunk driving, only to be welcomed back by their teams, or other teams, with open arms.  Star athletes openly discuss their use of steroids and other chemical enhancers, without a clear knowledge of what the impact will be on them later in life, some going so far as to say they would take the chemical knowing it would shorten their life, if it would guarantee them victory now.  Winners of games with a national audience are given parades and champagne dousings; losers have been known to commit suicide.  Hidden in the middle of other news are the small blurbs which tell us of the retired, former athletes who are now penniless, or addicted, or have been arrested for some crime that they would have gotten away with if they were still playing.  Hidden are the stories of how retired athletes, once cheered and adored, are not prepared to deal with life once the cheering stops and the camaraderie of the team and the thrill of active competition have subsided.

  “Getting knocked down is part of every game, including
life.  Being prepared for it, and getting back up,
is what winners and champions are made of.”

- Rosendo “Rusty” Torres

Those words were spoken by a retired, former athlete; one who was knocked down in life, one who wasn’t prepared for it and struggled with it, but has now managed to get back up.  He speaks those words from the heart, as do many former athletes who have lived the life of revered young prospect, star player, and then had a difficult time facing life after competitive sports.   Winning Beyond Winning has received the input of many former athletes, (including Ryne Duren, Phil Linz, Bobby Nystrom, Frank Tepedino, Emerson Boozer, Vito Antuofermo, Ed Kranepool, Chuck Schilling, Levern Tart, Bob Tufts), in formulating the curriculum for “Cross-Training for Life.”   We were not seeking, and did not receive, a collection of “war stories.”  What we sought, and what we received, were poignant life lessons, direct pieces of information and experience, which were guiding lights used in our discussions with psychologists, financial planners, career planners, coaches and other professionals whose expertise we felt should be presented to today’s young athletes.

Who are we?

Winning Beyond Winning was founded by Tom Sabellico, former NY Yankee Rosendo “Rusty” Torres, Ralph Caruso and Pat O’Brien.  Tom has been active in coaching youth sports since 1974.  He is President of Farmingdale Baseball, having served on its Board of Directors since 1987.  He was a founding member of the Nassau County Sports Commission and served as the Commission’s first General Counsel, Executive Vice-President and Acting Executive Director.  He is the founder of PowerHouse Baseball, Inc.  He has written the curriculum for, and taught, classes in Coaching Youth Sports.  He is a member of the American Baseball Coaches Association and is accredited by the National Youth Sports Coaches Association.  “Rusty” played with the Yankees, Indians, Angels, White Sox and Royals.  He was the International League Player of the Year and three time Silver Glove Winner as the outstanding outfielder in the minor leagues.  He is also the founder of The Greater New York Cosmopolitan Amateur Baseball Association, is the Head Instructor for PowerHouse Baseball, and is a clinician and instructor for many baseball camps, including the NY Yankees Youth Baseball Camp.  Winning Beyond Winning’s speakers and advisors include Vito Antuofermo, former world champ, Ryne Duren, Phil Linz and Frank Tepedino, former NY Yankees, Emerson Boozer, NY Jet SuperBowl Champ, Felix Millan, Ralph Garr, Phil Linz, Dave Lemanczyk, Chuck Schilling, Levern Tart, former NY Net, Bob Tufts, former Giant and Royal, and Arthur Mercante, famous boxing referee.

  What do we do?

Our mission is to help children and to help athletes, at every stage of their life, to make the right choices in preparing for life after competition.   We present programs and clinics to elementary school students, high school students, college athletes and minor leaguers, in every sport, to stress the need for education and a trade other than a chosen sport.  We emphasize the importance of leading lives free from dependency on alcohol and drugs.

  When did we start?

Winning Beyond Winning was created as a New York State not-for-profit corporation on January 6, 1998.

  Where do we do it?

Winning Beyond Winning has presented programs and clinics in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, several high schools in Nassau and Suffolk, in Albany, and we presented the Life Skills Program at Major League Baseball's RBI Program in Orlando, Florida in 2001.  We will go to any school or youth group at any place at any time to present our program.

  How can you help?

Winning Beyond Winning, as a charitable organization, exists by virtue of the generosity of the community.  You can help the mission of Winning Beyond Winning in one of several ways:  you can become a member and receive a certificate signed by Rusty, a membership card, a t-shirt and our newsletter; you can attend one of our fundraising dinners; you can make a donation; you can volunteer your time; or you can help spread the word about our organization and advise us of youth groups or schools who would like us to make a presentation or program to them.

  How can I reach Winning Beyond Winning?

 You can reach us by phone, fax, mail or e-mail:

General Information: WBWinning@aol.com
Webmaster: WBWinning@aol.com

 

Famous Quotes: 

When the game is over the king and the pawn go in the same box.”
                                                                                               - Italian proverb

         “Many of the abuses, including   the abuse of drugs or alcohol or steroids among some college athletes or some professional athletes, stem from the complete athletization of life, the displacement of all social rules by the rules of the game’s culture.  Totally absorbed, some feel invulnerable, invincible, completely exempt from conventional expectations …  the inevitable result, particularly among some former professional athletes well into their thirties (although I  have seen it among college athletes and, in a few cases, with gifted high s chool athletes, whose ‘careers’ stopped at about 19), is that there is no place in the general culture for them when they no longer fit in the cult.  They have prepared no skill or trade, have eschewed all other   interests, have made no plan or expressed any desire for a plan, because no one told them or they refused to believe that there comes an end to running, an end to the cheers, an end to the life lived on the cuff,  to the endless pleasuring of themselves.  … Such people are as if newborn when it is over, accustomed to packing a suitcase but not to carrying it, unaccustomed to few if any of the hundreds of daily activities  that require one to negotiate for oneself.”
                                                                             - A. Bartlett Giamatti

      “It’s an experience that all athletes go through.  For some, it’s relatively painless.  For others, it’s their worst nightmare come true.  But regardless of how they cope with it, it’s an experience that they can’t bypass…
      "… how does it feel to learn that the game you’ve always loved more than anything else just doesn’t have room  for you anywhere, leaving you … with no idea of what to do with the rest of your life?
        from When the Cheering Stops            - Lee Heiman, Dave Weiner & Bill Gutman

Dale Long, major league ballplayer for 10 seasons:   “When your productivity was done, they put you out to pasture. … I went home and read in the paper hat I had been released.  I made a typical dumb ballplayer move.  I bought a bar.  For six years I was completely out of baseball.  I had the bar, then went into sales, then I was an ironworker for a while.  I did a lot of different things to try to put bread on the table, and I was bitter because I felt I had something to show someone.”

Mel Parnell, major league ballplayer for 9 seasons:  “I began to wonder if my career might be coming toward the end.  But when that happens you just have to get on with it and try to make adjustments.   I knew the twilight was nearing and I wanted to try everything to stop that from happening.  Believe me, the immediate transition wasn’t easy.  … For the first   year I kind of stayed home and tried to readjust.”                      
                               

Tom Tresh, major leaguer for 9 seasons, saw his career shortened by an injury, and had a successful second career at Central Michigan University: “I knew there had to be something else in life besides playing baseball. “When my father left baseball, a lot of  things changed very quickly.  For one thing, he didn’t have a college degree.  A lot of the people who always seemed to be on his side were suddenly on the side of the guy who took his place. “My father always encouraged me to get a college education. I was aware at a young age  if you played baseball, you had to be thinking about what you would  do after you got out. I finished my college education and that put me in a kind of title situation. There isn’t enough time in the off-season to really learn a trade or anything like that, unless you persist, year after year.”                                     

Ed Kranepool, major league ballplayer for 18 seasons: It always seems that guys flounder for a year, or a year and a half, often not knowing where to look or what direction to take.  So they stay home and don’t get a job right away.  And before they know it, any little nest egg they built up is gone.  A number of players were wiped out financially because of that.”