School Counselor Spends His Summers Teaching Swedes an All-American Sport

Ron J. Brown had a good fast ball that propelled him into professional baseball. But he found that everyone in pro ball can hit a good fast ball, so he turned to teaching.

Still, baseball had a draw on him. He ended up in Sweden, where for the past 12 summers, Brown has taught young Swedes how to play baseball and softball. The rest of the year, he’s a counselor at Valley High School in Santa Ana.

“Back in the ‘70s, baseball coaches were going to different countries to promote baseball,” said Brown, 43, of Orange, who coached baseball at Chapman College during that period. “I thought it was a good way to see Europe. I didn’t know it was going to last 12 years.”

After coaching the Swedish national baseball team from 1974 through 1976, Brown said, “the (Swedish) government felt I could help out more in the administrative end.” One of his duties is to select outstanding coaches to teach baseball and softball to Swedish players.

“There are hundreds of coaches going to Europe each summer to help national baseball programs,” he said.

For his efforts in developing a baseball and softball sports program for the country, the Swedish government and the Swedish Baseball and Softball Federation presented him with an official commendation and glass sculpture.

“Baseball has been great for me,” Brown said. “Baseball is a common denominator. It allows you not only to have some great teammates and coaches but also to meet people from all countries.”

Brown, who is of Scandinavian heritage, said besides promoting baseball as a competitive sport and a means of international coexistence of people, Sweden was one of a number of European countries that wanted respectable programs to help make the sport an Olympic Games event. (Baseball will be added to the 1992 Olympic Games.) Sweden’s national team is ranked fourth in Europe.

Besides bringing American coaches on expense-aid trips to teach women and men how to play competitive ball, Brown said teams of Swedish players are being sent to the United States to see how ball is played on the high school, college and professional level.

But while the United States is far ahead in baseball, Brown the schoolteacher, notes, “We’re 25 years behind the Swedes in public day care centers” as well as some high school programs. Sweden’s school dropout rate is 8%, he said, compared to 32% in America.

Carrie Garritson, of Fullerton, may dominate female runners in Orange County forever considering that she’s only 9 years old and just won the 6.2-mile third annual Fullerton 10K Nite Run in 35 minutes, 25 seconds. She ran in the 14 and under age group.

It was the best overall time of the 352 women in the race, which drew a total of 1,425 runners. Her closest rival was Lari Bright, who ran in the 25-29 age group and finished in 35 minutes, 56 seconds.

“I’m amazed,” race director Steve Pischel said. “I’ve run a lot of 10-Ks and (that) is a good time for any woman, and fantastic for that age category. Normally you don’t get anyone that young running under 45 minutes.”

Veteran English teacher Judith Remy Leder needed to rate the ability of 100 students in her introductory general education class at Cal State Fullerton, so she tested them on history, geography and current events.

“I wasn’t trying to trip them up,” said Leder of Fullerton. “But I really expected them to do much better than they did.” For instance, on name recognition, 60 students were unable to identify Alexander Hamilton, Geoffrey Chaucer and Desmond Tutu. But all knew of Erika Kane on the television soap “All My Children.”

Incredibly, only 10% knew of Hamilton, the country’s first Treasury Secretary whose name and likeness are on $10 bills.

“The depth of ignorance they have is scary to me,” said Remy, who has been teaching for 20 years. “I expected them to do much better than they did. It leaves me with a lot of questions. Do I start from scratch?”

(Tutu is the South African bishop who last year was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Chaucer is a famed early English author.)

Acknowledgments--La Habra High School junior Johnny Pena, 16, winner of national photography contests for the past three years, was named La Habra Boys Club Boy of the Year. He said he learned photography at the club.