On May 5th, 2025, at approximately 3 pm a swarm of cars carrying 25 young men were sighted making their way down the lower driveway – their destination: the bottom parking lot. Their energetic driving patterns were immediately felt as atypical to our normal fare – no, this spectacle felt more akin to a formidable storm the kind which catches you completely off guard. Also, they advanced as a single unit with no meanders allowed. One easily could imagine that certain highly competitive and unseen forces were at play … the kind only young teenage lads might inhabit when ‘games on.’ They zigged and zagged, and when they finally discovered their parking spaces only one question remained: how could such apparent chaos be channeled/tamed to serve the need for order … the order required to get various jobs done? Fine the answers below.
Thankfully Coach Olenski along with his father are living the answer out. Here’s some of the ‘how’ in which they do just that. So, before I could finish describing the projects to be tackled, Mr. Olenski Sr. was in the spill way down in the water and mud with two volunteers figuring out what tools and just how they would go about the job ahead of them. OK, there’s part of the answer: a ‘can do, will do’ attitude as well as an interest in meeting challenges. Then Coach Olenski Jr. wasted no time in forming sub teams and over the next 3 hours things got done! Besides cleaning the spillway by the patio, they also helped Jess in the Vegetable Garden, picked up branches and leaves from the lawns, and cleared the parking lot of all debris and weeds. But how they got done counted too -maybe more – and should be mentioned. I witnessed a good deal of support for one another was at play as these guys seemed to like being in each other’s company, and they showed a unique sensitivity to building each other up much more than tearing one another down (the norm in adolescence). So, relationship building as well as positive role models constitute part of the answer to our question. It also felt like there was ‘belonging’ happening. Then there was this atmosphere of respect. I kept running into a lot of ‘yes sirs’ and ‘what’s next sir?’ in my afternoon experience. That felt pretty good.
Additionally, I witnessed several peer leaders not being afraid to push the jobs forward showing that ‘extra’ thing … that subjective quality that exists in groups that distinguish the average even the good from the best.
The afternoon got wrapped up with Coach Olenski talking about the value of service and of being part of something bigger than yourself. You could discern gospel values surfacing throughout his summary remarks as he was putting words on to their experience, framing it so, as to grow a context. Such context leads to meaning making, and so here’s another piece of the puzzle. I’m figuring that in answering the question just how do you flip chaos into an ordered space that works for everyone I’d say this piece lays the foundation and the rest follow.
Lastly, it was indeed a pleasure working with these coaches. They go way past teaching pure baseball skills to young men. No, this son and father team are in the most serious business of building and forming character in young men, and they use gospel values as their foundational tools. Indeed, I came away feeling hopeful!
