Young Athletes Learn the Drill From Teenagers

He looks like he’d be more at home in a rap music video than on a basketball court ... baggy shorts, big shirt, braided hair wrapped in a bandanna.

But 18-year-old Alex Cruz leads the Mason Park Sparks, a basketball team of 11- and 12-year-old girls, who are all eyes and ears as he leads them through their practice drills.

He dribbles around a pair of pint-sized defenders and leaps to slam-dunk the basketball. “You see what happened?” he asks, striding back down the court as the rim shakes behind him. “You can’t guard that close, or they’ll beat you. You’ve got to respect their handles.”

The girls nod, as if they know what handles are. When the season began, some couldn’t find the “key” on a basketball court with a map. Now Cruz has them setting screens, running motion, posting up, boxing out.

And if he’s taught the girls a lot about basketball, he’s taught their parents not to judge a book by its cover.

“He isn’t exactly the most clean-cut kid,” admits Tracie Fields, director at Mason Park recreation center in Chatsworth. “You walk in to practice the first day and see him as your coach, you might say, ‘Whoa, do I want to leave my daughter with this kid?’ But you get to know him and it’s a different story.”

Cruz is one of hundreds of teenagers across the city who volunteer several hours a week coaching youth sports for local recreation centers.

There is no typical teenage coach, just as there is no typical teenager. They are boys and girls, as young as 12 and as old as 18; some with braces on their teeth and some with tongue rings; some aiming to beef up an application to Stanford and others trying to stay out of juvenile hall.

“A lot of parents are used to their kids being coached by other parents,” Fields said. “They start off being negative about teenagers. But they’ll usually withhold judgment, give them a chance. And, for the most part, we haven’t had any problems. They’ve been responsible, they work hard. And the kids tend to like them because they’re closer in age, they can relate to their players a little better.”

Teenagers make up about 10% of the 10,000 volunteers at the city’s parks and recreation centers. Most are summer helpers who volunteer as camp counselors-in-training, office aides or cultural docents. But a core of teen coaches volunteers year-round in the city’s basketball, softball and baseball programs. Some recreation centers couldn’t run without them.

“Our teenagers take on a lot of responsibility,” said Joyce Nishimuro, director of the recreation center in the Aliso-Pico housing project near downtown Los Angeles.

A city funding freeze has left her short-staffed, and she is seldom able to muster more than a handful of parent volunteers. She relies on teenage volunteers to coach about a third of the center’s basketball teams, as well as conduct classes, help in the office and teach sports such as gymnastics.

“Most of them would be hanging out here anyway, because there’s not much to do in this neighborhood,” she said. “They’re glad to help, whatever I ask them to do ... coach a team, do the scoring, sweep the floor. They don’t get paid, but they learn a lot about being professional.”

At Green Meadow recreation center in Culver City, the pool of teen volunteers keeps growing. “They tutor the kids, teach arts and crafts, coach basketball -- both the girls and the boys. They help me set up and clean up, issue uniforms, just about anything I need done,” said sports coordinator Paula Moss. “They see their friends doing it and say, ‘I can do that, too,’ so they come in and ask to coach. The only problem I have is they’re too nice sometimes. They let the little kids get away with too much.”

Many are current or former high school players. Cruz played for Chatsworth High before graduating last year. Now he spends about 10 hours a week coaching three teams at Mason -- two teams of girls and one of boys.

For Cruz, basketball is a family affair. He has cousins on two teams and his little sister, Danielle, plays for the Sparks. His mother is assistant coach for both girls’ teams, and his father helps with the boys.

Some parents say they’ve come to prefer teenage coaches over the typical sports-fanatic parent coaches.

“They’re less intense than the grown-ups,” said Roberta Ganz, a Chatsworth mother whose three daughters have had almost a dozen teenage coaches among them at Mason Park during the last 10 years. “The teenagers seem to be more patient, and they don’t have [their own] kids on the team, so they’re more impartial.”

And the teens tend to be more fun, she said. “We had two girl coaches who gave our team slumber parties one year and made little gifts for each of the players. They seem to get the idea that it’s not just about winning.”

Ganz’s daughters have been coached by brother-sister duos, high school teammates, a mother and son, and, this season, a mother and daughter. “I really give a lot of credit to the parents of the coaches,” she said. “A lot of these kids are too young to drive, so their mothers take them to every game, every practice.”

Lori Rivadeneira, Cruz’s mom, said the commitment has been worth it. “I’ve watched him mature. He never loses his temper, doesn’t yell at the kids; he’s learned to pump them up for the things they do well. I’ve had parents come up to me and say their kids want to play for Alex.”

Cruz says his players have taught him as well.

“I wouldn’t say I was sexist or anything, but I really wasn’t into girls basketball that much. But when I work with my girls, I see how hard they try, how much they enjoy the game.... Now it’s a whole different thing. I love watching them play.”