Name: An Exceptional Softball Coach Who's Changing Lives
Uploaded: 2019-03-27T01:48:48.000Z
Duration: 7 min 9 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Past simple

I wanna read a letter that I received from the players on

a middle school softball team in the Bronx, New York.

To-infinitive

Dear Ellen, we want to tell you about this great man, who has not

only been a teacher and a coach, but a father, many of us do not have fathers and

we were lost before this amazing human stepped in and changed that.

to him, every girl on the ladies' Tigers softball team is his daughter.

There was a time when we thought we we're losing him to stomach cancer but

he continued to fight for all of us, he is incredible and we want the whole world to

know what he does for all girls from the South Bronx, love, the Lady Tigers.

That's just one of the amazing letters we received about this guy.

Before we start talking I want everyone to see more of your story.

>> Hi, my name is Chris Astacio I'm a PE teacher in the Tyler 1 South Bronx school.

I'm also the head coach of the Lady Tigers.

My first year, I knew the school was struggling.

>> And the most brutal fights will amongst females.

And I realized they needed something to be proud about, they needed something to come

together with, and it just popped into my head, softball.

It was very hard in the beginning because I had girls that did not like each other.

And so instead of teaching softball I was teaching girls how to respect each other,

how to respect themselves, how to value themselves.

And it took awhile, but it slowly but surely became a family of sisters.

>> These girls inspire me every single day.

>> When I see him, I see the father that I never had.

Just because he's not my father by blood doesn't mean I can't still love him,

>> In the beginning I kept on trying to quit, and quit, and quit.

much that I felt that I couldn't be happy.

it meant a lot because he's not even my father.

I don't know what I would do without him.

>> I tell my girls, we're a family first, team second.

In 2009 I was diagnosed with stomach cancer.

I had laparoscopic surgery where they took a third of my stomach out.

I didn't think the pain was going to end.

>> And we just saw how strong he would stay for us.

He would always say that he was fine though we knew he wasn't.

And what kind of example would I be if I quit?

I feel like I'm cancer free because of my family and my girls.

[APPLAUSE] >> I just want you to see that this is

This is about improving these girls' lives, giving them hope,

And what made you decide that this was what your path is?

>> I'm sorry, I love these girls, that's first of all, I love these girls.

I had a sister who was similar to these girls.

She grew up in the Bronx and she made bad decisions, bad choices.

And she always use to tell me, you should become a teacher, should become a teacher.

And, when she died, that's when I made the decision to become a teacher.

>> No, it's very emotional, and we surprised you.

>> And then not only, here's what I think is amazing,

because you said the girls were fighting.

Nobody was really paying attention in school.

You made them focus on something that's not only good for

them in a healthy lifestyle, but it's changed everyone in the school, hasn't it?

They become role models for every girl in the school.

In the beginning it was just a few girls who wanted to join softball, like seven.

This past year it was 60 girls wanting to join softball.

It's not only they transform the school, they transformed themselves.

In the beginning I saw girls that were very angry.

three years later, these girls, they're leaders of their school.

I mean, they go outside in their community, people recognize them.

Those are those girls in the orange shirts.

Who were you saying is like a father and what way is he like a father?

What we mean by he's like a father, he shows you love that,

if you don't have a father, he's there for you.

The first that I ever came to the school, he showed me love and I felt like a very

special bond towards him, because I don't have a very big connection with my dad.

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An Exceptional Softball Coach Who's Changing Lives

ultimately

struggle

recognize

deserve