Designer One Team Takes Blue Division Championship

by Judith Dupre

(June 17, 2008) On Friday, June 13, the Designer One team captured the Larchmont Mamaroneck Little League World Series for the Blue Division title, beating Dubin’s Deli 6-2 in the third and final game of the Championship Series. What made the win especially sweet were the boys themselves, who ranged from third to six graders, and the coaching style of Victor Badner and Anant Nambiar.

Go Blue! The Designer One team celebrated their championship win on June 13. Front (l-r): Jack Webber, Gabriel Badner, Chris Richart, Kumar Nambiar, David Lehman, Scott Vasquez, Asher Soriano. Middle: Emmet Gaffney, Tommie Spero, Sam Fraioli. Back: Coach Victor Badner, Coach Anant Nambiar, Alex Styler, and Daniel O’Rourke.

“From Day One, it seemed like we were all meant to play together,” said Tommie Spero after the team’s undefeated regular season. “All teammates gave something to the team,” as Alex Styler put it. “Everyone got a chance to play the infield twice a game no matter who they were. It was fun being in an environment with coaches who gave us responsibility and expected us to learn from our mistakes and let everyone play."

David Lehman, a third grader who was the picture of calm as he pitched the two definitive outs that ended the game, said, "Everyone worked together and everyone was friends."

“It was a true team effort,” said Gabriel Badner. Kumar Nambiar echoed this point, “We had seven different kids pitch a lot this season, and had home runs by five different players, showing how well balanced this team was.”

In a telling moment, when one player got his first hit of the season in the first championship playoff game, the team and parents cheered as if “we had won the World Series, and hugged the boy as if he had just hit a homer to win the game,” said Victor Badner. "Winning doesn't hurt, but the smile on that boy's face is the reason you volunteer to do this.”

“Coach Victor brought the spirit and Coach Anant brought the coaching talent,” Emmet Gaffney said of the two Larchmont dads who led Designer One to victory. “Our coaches made us practice hard and we tried our hardest to get to where we are now," said Chris Richart.

David Lehman’s mother Melinda summed up what the players’ parents appreciated most about the season: “Anant and Victor gave every child a chance to try every position and bat in every place in the batting order. The result was a group of boys who felt confident in their abilities and truly part of a team.”

“Baseball is about failure and recovery. You have to let go of your mistakes yet learn from them at the same time,” said Coach Badner. “When the boys began to cheer each other on with the quips and phrases we had used all season— ‘two strikes, protect’ or ‘how you practice is how you play’ —we realized they had listened and really learned the fundamentals we had taught them all season," said Coach Nambiar. Both men attended the Positive Coaching Alliance meeting held at Hommocks earlier this year, which reinforced their enthusiastic yet laid-back coaching style.

Ultimately, Designer One’s championship win was a footnote to a season of sportsmanship, camaraderie and learning—everything that Little League should be.

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