FORMER DEFENSIVE lineman Garin Veris, a skillful pass rusher,knocked opposing quarterbacks to the ground many times during hisplaying days in the 1980s and early '90s with the New EnglandPatriots. Veris, an Ohio native, will be returning to Boston shortlyafter Christmas, this time with the intention of pulling local youthsoff their backs and into city sports programs.
Mayor Menino this week tapped Veris, a graduate of Boston CollegeLaw School, to serve as the city's sports czar. What he will find,and will need to address, is a youth sports scene that looks fairlyrobust on paper but is weak in terms of participation. A 1997Northeastern University study found that only about 35 percent ofBoston youths play sports regularly, about half the rate in nearbysuburbs.
Not much came of the study in subsequent years, nor of the Meninoadministration's promise to create a Boston Youth Sports Congressthat would concentrate on expanding access to enjoyable sportsprograms and good sportsmanship. Instead, erratic offerings in thecity's community centers, occasional violence at neighborhoodbasketball league games, elimination of physical educationrequirements in the schools, and student apathy have made for a citypopulated with too many torpid teens.
Veris should find solid teammates, however. Both Larry Mayes, thenew head of Boston's human service programs, and Robert Lewis, thenew chief of the city's community centers, understand the importanceof integrating physical activity into the lives of local youths andhow such activity can lead to success in school. Kenneth Still, therecently appointed athletic director for the Boston public schools,also appears determined to restore the levels of athletic competitionthat he enjoyed as a standout basketball player at English HighSchool in the 1960s. High on his list, says Still, is the creation ofa wrestling program and the introduction of softball and flagfootball into the city's middle schools.
'We have all the right people in all the right places,' saysMenino, adding that he will be pressing city workers to providecoaching workshops and expand youth sports activities on weekends.
One immediate task will be to coordinate the athletics programsnow found in schools and community centers. Another will be todetermine whether the children of new immigrant families from CentralAmerica, Haiti, and Somalia might be more inclined to athleticactivities other than the ones offered now. Veris must also transforma system on a meager municipal athletics budget of $4 million. Hesays he will recruit corporations, universities, and professionalsports teams to the cause.
Veris is going to need all of the strength and agility he showedon the field to motivate Boston's young people.
