For Abed Mustafa, 49, teaching kids the fundamentals comes first.
Coaching little league baseball is his life, and has been for the past 15 years. Mustafa is the commissioner and coach of the De Phillips Athletics Club (DAC) Marksmen, who are in the Texas division.
The Marksmen, a traveling summer league, have home field advantage when they play at their own diamond in Fort Totten. For the kids, who are only seven to eight year olds, they have a coach who really drills them on the basics and devotes all his energy to the growth of the team.
“Staying down and coaching these younger kids … you get a fresh batch of faces every time,” said Mustafa. “I get there and get the work done.”
With the Marksmen’s season coming to a close, and playoffs just around the corner, the team’s tireless coach has to buckle down and hope for the best.
“To me, not having enough time with these kids is the hardest part,” said Mustafa. “I have to gauge the ability of each kid.”
Starting from July 7 and running through the end of August, these kids play two games a week and practice either three or four times a week, depending on who really needs more time to polish up their skills.
Mustafa, married with two kids in college, is an architectural engineer for Massand International – a company he’s been with since his graduation from Pratt Institute.
The longtime coach spends his free time at his home in Douglaston, and catches pick-up basketball games with his friends in parks around the borough.
The Marksmen are also guided by two other coaches, Pasquale Carpentiere and Joseph Petze, who both admire Mustafa’s devotion and loyalty to this team. “I put him on a pedestal,” said Carpentiere, who has been with the team for three years. “Its amazing that he doesn’t have a kid on the team, but treats all the kids there like they were one of his own.”
Along with his summer league, Mustafa coaches a spring team that also plays at Fort Totten, but they are much less competitive. The summer team gets much deeper into the fundamentals of the sport.
He teaches the kids about pitching accurately and fielding correctly.
“Its something that I just have a passion for,” he said. “Seeing these kids progress is the greatest reward for me.”
Mustafa keeps a friendly but competitive demeanor when he coaches his squad. To him, he believes the parents appreciate his dedication and its shows when they send him thank you letters and along with friendly gestures when they bump into him on the street.
“The parents always reach back and tell me how proud they are,” said Mustafa. “They like to keep in touch and I develop good relationships.”
With three championships already, the last being in 2004, Mustafa hopes to keep the ball rolling and catch a hot streak for his team of youngsters.
Thoughts of retirement from the league never even breach the surface of his mind.
“Right now, I don’t even look that far down the road.”
