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San Juan Capistrano JSerra baseball team learns concept of giving year-round

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Six teenagers giggle and debate how to move a bush on a trolley without dropping it. Others, wearing batting gloves, lift bricks and wipe away ants and spiders crawling up their arms. Another tediously rolls his rake along a dirt field looking for rocks and nails.

All are members of the San Juan Capistrano JSerra baseball team. Carrying shovels instead of bats and wearing shorts instead of sliding pants, they spent three days in September helping clean horse stalls and move heavy materials while sprucing up the Shea Center, which was founded in 1978 to serve as a therapeutic riding center for individuals with disabilities.

At Christmastime, many open their hearts and minds to helping others, but what about the other 364 days of the year?

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JSerra Coach Brett Kay has chosen to introduce his players to the concept of helping their community at any time of the year.

“The most important thing to get out of this is how blessed they are as a student-athlete,” Kay said. “It’s about helping out the San Juan Capistrano community and making sure these kids understand there are things more important in life than baseball.”

JSerra’s baseball program isn’t alone in using community service to make an impression on its players. Gardena Serra football players spent a Saturday painting projects around their community. Los Angeles Loyola basketball players spent a day helping feed the homeless. Encino Crespi football players went to Mexico to help build a house.

Lots of schools have added community service requirements to graduate, but doing something just to fulfill an assignment is not what showing up at a shelter or food bank is supposed to be about. The real hope is that once a teenager sees and feels what others are going through, maybe it will be motivation to become a volunteer or contributor in the future.

When the JSerra players first marched up to the Shea Center, located across the street from their baseball diamond, they didn’t look too happy. They had cut practice short and were warned they’d be getting dirty. But by the end, when they were able to take a photo with a miniature horse named Bennie and were dirty enough to need a shower, they seemed to understand the point that the adults were trying to get across.

“It’s not a publicity stunt for the baseball program,” Kay said. “It’s not a publicity stunt for the school. It’s about these kids learning to do things the right way and for the best cause they possibly can.”

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Grant Davis, a JSerra infielder, was going back and forth with a rake by himself on a field used by horses, trying to cleanse the area of unsafe rocks and other objects. It was his fourth year coming to the Shea Center.

“It’s taught me a lot, and I think I’ll be able to carry it through my life,” he said. “No matter what I do, you always give back to the community and do something good in life. It makes you feel good.”

Bryce Crader, a sophomore, kept searching for nails in a dirt field without complaining.

“My sister rides horses, so I understand the importance of taking care of horses,” he said.

Austin Hedges, a senior catcher who signed with UCLA, acknowledges his goal in life is “to never have an actual job.” He wants to play baseball every day. So taking time away from that didn’t start out as the most pleasant of assignments.

“It’s more of a team bonding experience, everybody getting out here, working hard, doing something they don’t necessarily want to do and giving back to the community,” he said. “It’s nice to do something for a group that’s giving back to the community as well. The Shea community is giving back to the special children who want to ride some horses. It feels good doing it.”

And the players didn’t mind getting dirty.

“I like getting dirty for this,” Davis said.

eric.sondheimer@latimes.com

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