SJ Sports: A Sister`s Tribute

I will never forget Cherry Hill West spring of 1987, an exciting season for baseball. I was married for 2 years, expecting my first child, and most importantly, I never missed a Cherry Hill West Varsity Baseball game.

What a great team that year. Those boys had it all, ability, brains, drive, and devoted families. Yes, I was one of those devoted family members. I vividly remember watching playoff games with the mothers of players, Scott Cohen, David Yanstick, Ben Weinstein, Andy Albrecht and closest to my heart, my brother Dan Green.

Fondly, I recall these Team Moms watching each game with extreme intensity. They would often be eating sunflower seeds, as they sat on their lawn chairs yelling louder than any man in support of their sons.

For me, watching them was sometimes more fun than watching the actual game. Those moms were certainly dedicated cheerleaders.

Perhaps these women stand out in my memory because I spent so much time with them as we watched their sons grow up. As a proud big sister, I watched these boys play baseball from Cherry Hill Eastern Little League, to Cherry Hill’s Babe Ruth League all the way to their glory days as Cherry Hill High School West’s Varsity Baseball Team.

Each one of the 1987 team members has their own unique story, some happy, some sad, but all memorable.

One of those stories features Dan Green, my brother. A health and physical education teacher, Dan’s wife Erica, a first grade teacher, and daughter Jaclyn are the lights in his life. His career path has been an interesting one with many unexpected turns along the way. His journey literally started as a child. I think he learned how to throw a ball before he could even walk.

He absolutely understood the game of baseball before he could read. Dan’s first grade teacher, Mrs. Shields at Cherry Hill’s Malberg Elementary School could back me up on this fact.

All Dan cared about was sports, baseball in particular. Reading was the last thing on his mind. Shields, knowing Dan’s love for sports and the dilemma of trying to get him to read, brought in the sports page to school daily. Dan even recalls the first book he ever read, given to him by Mrs. Shields, The Autobiography of Bobby Orr.

Although it was not about baseball, hockey was ok with Dan as well. What a brilliant and creative way to teach a child, reaching them through their interests.

As a teacher, Dan uses his athletic ability and intelligence to reach out to his students. He shares daily with each child the importance of education as he instills the valuable lessons learned by participating in sports.

As Dan grew, baseball was as much a part of him as breathing. During his years in little league and then in the Babe Ruth League, while other kids were on the field enjoying the activity of playing the game, Dan as catcher, along with pitcher David Yanstick would be strategizing. This duo would later team up again in high school.

Dan took his position as serious as one would take a job. Sometimes he might even have forgotten that it was only the Babe Ruth League and not the Pro’s. However, such dedication to his team and the game ended up shaping his goals and dreams for the future.

From elementary school, to middle school, to high school, baseball kept him focused.

As did most boys his age, he had aspirations of becoming a pro player. At the same time, his coaches stressed the balance of education. Dan’s approach was to play varsity baseball and work hard enough to get into a college that placed a high priority on sports, eventually choosing Towson State College in Maryland. He majored in Sports Management and played college ball to his hearts content.

That was probably the most exciting time in his sports life. Unfortunately, a shoulder injury was not part of the plan. Pro baseball was no longer an option, and it was time to re-direct. Dan focused on sports management, and after graduation, he completed internships with the Baltimore Orioles, Washington Redskins, and the Philadelphia Eagles.

Dan’s entire focus was on finding a job within the sports industry — sports agency, marketing, promotions, sales. Becoming an educator was the last thing on his mind.

That’s when Dan met Erica, a first grade teacher. Inspired by Erica’s commitment to education, Dan decided to get certified in Health and Physical Education. He worked 30 hours a week at a manual labor job in a warehouse while going to graduate school full time. But while working, he would go over choices he had made and things that had happened. “What if I didn’t injure my shoulder?” “What if I took a different internship? “If I stayed in Maryland?”

Dan no longer dwells on life’s “What If’s?” He is thankful for the opportunity to teach children about life and academics through his love of sports. He believes it’s important to teach children and parents that structure, time management, discipline, strategy, ethics, and values can be learned through sports.

Now when Dan looks back, his thoughts take a philosophical twist.

“If I hadn’t gone to Towson, I wouldn’t have gotten my sports management degree. If I hadn’t injured my shoulder, I would not have come back to New Jersey. Everything in my life happened the way it was supposed to. I look at my beautiful wife and my beautiful daughter and can’t imagine it any other way.”

Content provided by South Jersey Sports Club.

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Author: SJ Sports Club-Beth S. Epstein