Coach gets his kids reading
From the St. Louis Post Dispatch - June 25, 2007Coach gets his kids reading
by D. Paul Harris
WELLSTON %u2014 When Demetrious Nettles, 12, picked up his very first library card last week, he immediately put it into action.
"I got a book out about baseball called 'Let Them Play,'" said Demetrious, a 6th-grader at Bishop Middle School in Wellston who wants to someday become a professional baseball player.
Demetrious' interest in books, even if it's one about sports, is what Tim Bright is trying to instill in the 140 boys who play in the Redbird Rookies baseball league that is run by Bright.
Bright is urging the boys to get St. Louis County Library cards and has arranged for the books to come to Wellston %u2014 on the county library's mobile van. It made its first stop in Wellston, at the City Hall parking lot, on June 15.
Bright, 44, who has been involved in youth baseball for years, grew up in St. Louis and graduated from University City High School, where he played baseball under Coach Otis Gilkey, the father of former Cardinal outfielder Bernard Gilkey.
Bright, the father of six, said part of his mission is to give back what he received as a youth.
"That love from somebody to guide you through manhood into sports and sportsmanship over a period of years has made me, with the help of my parents, to be the man that I am today," Bright said. "I do the same things for the kids in my community because some of them don't have dads at home.
Sometimes they don't have either parent at home. It's just unfortunate."
Wellston, among the poorest communities in St. Louis County, has no library. The closest public library is more than two miles away in University City, and the closest libraries in the St. Louis and St. Louis County systems are at least five miles away.
That's too far for the boys in the Redbird Rookies league, who are 5 to 13 years old.
Bright worked with the County Library to get its bookmobile to come by for two hours every other Friday, and with the city of Wellston to get an electrical outlet installed to power the vehicle.
On June 15, more than 50 children and several parents showed up to get their cards. Bright, who works in computers for a manufacturing company, says reading is the foundation to a good education.
"If you are not capable of reading, you don't even know how much you made when you get paid," Bright said.
Rob Johnson, 14, who has played in the league for two years, appreciates Bright's work.
"Mr. Bright keeps a lot of kids out of trouble," said Rob, an 8th-grader at Bishop Middle School. "He's a good coach. He lets you know what you do good and what you do bad. He's showing me how to grow up and be a man. He's showing me how to win and how to lose without having fights."
Bright started with the Redbird Rookies league as a parent interested in his own children's activities. But he ended up taking on more and more duties. He now runs the league, which is sponsored by Cardinals Care, the charitable arm of the St. Louis Cardinals.
Dwight Whitfield, a longtime neighbor of Bright and his wife, Christine, 44, said he admired Bright's work with Wellston's children.
"He takes them and turns them completely around," Whitfield said. He added, "There ain't nothing he wouldn't do for these kids out here."
dpharris@post-dispatch.com | 314-372-8506
