Huntington University (Ind.) baseball team opens third season of reading

Part of the Verison Reads initiative

Posted on 02.20.08

Submitted by: Heather Barkley, Assistant Director of Public Relations, hbarkley@huntington.edu

HUNTINGTON, IN - Huntington University’s baseball team has begun the third year of its literacy program in area elementary and middle schools.

In 2005, former player Lance Chrisman, a former vice president for Verizon, contacted head coach Mike Frame about the team participating in the Verizon Reads program. Since its inception in 1999, the program has raised millions of dollars toward literacy programs across the nation.

Frame believes that Verizon Reads not only helps the children but also impacts his 24 players.

“We are at the point that we have more teachers making requests for players than we have players,” Frame said. “We also have players going back to the same schools for the second or third year to continue with relationships they built two or three years ago.”

The program gives the players an opportunity to reach out to the community and show that they are more than just students who stay in their college “bubble.”

“It allows the community to view the baseball team not just as players who want to play ball, but rather as real people who value assisting others,” said senior Jeremy Rodibaugh, a pitcher for the Foresters and a physical education major from Rensselaer, Ind.

Each of the players will donate an hour a week during the spring semester to help students in grades first through eighth improve their reading skills.

“It provides an opportunity for the community to have a positive impression of our baseball program,” said senior pitcher Trent Huffman, a recreation management major from Angola, Ind. “It is great to see how much the kids look forward to our reading time each week. It is a win/win situation.”

This spring, the team hopes to continue to reach out to the students and be positive role models.

“We have one teacher that shared with me that she has a young boy in her class who thinks that ‘real men don’t read,’” Frame said. “Obviously, we hope to change his thinking!”

“Children will associate a certain status with athletes next to non-athletes, and naturally, they will look to the athletes as role models,” said senior centerfielder Keith Benbow, a recreation management major from Muncie, Ind. “When that athlete comes into their classroom to help them read, it puts the college athlete and the young student on the same level. That will make a young person feel good and hopefully give them a little more incentive to learn.”

The main goal for the program is to motivate the children to improve their reading skills. Frame insists that while the players are helping the students to improve, he gives the teachers the bulk of the credit.

Visit www.huntington.edu to learn more.   

-NAIA-

The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) is the governing body for athletics programs at its nearly 300 colleges and universities throughout the United States and Canada. The long-held mission of the NAIA is to promote the education and development of well-rounded students and productive citizens through intercollegiate athletics. The association offers equitable access and opportunities for participation in its 23 national championship events held annually throughout the country.

Today, the NAIA strengthens its commitment to student-athletes and strives to enrich their college experience by supporting academic achievement and character development. NAIA Champions of Character is the association’s innovative flagship program designed to instill character values in student-athletes, coaches and youth in the communities it serves.