When Boston teens and kids head to South Boston’s Moakley Park on Monday and Thursday nights for the Summer Track and Field Program run by Youth Enrichment Services (YES), they are met by staff members who, not too long ago, walked or ran a mile in their shoes.
Dorchester’s Katie Keating, now 21 and a senior at Connecticut College, spent every summer of elementary school with YES, running around the track at Moakley’s Saunders Stadium.
“I did YES as a kid, and now I’m back here as an activity coordinator (AC), said the mid-distance runner on ConnCollege’s Women’s Track and Field team. “I just want to give back to the community that gave me my favorite sport. I love seeing all the kids. They’re so happy and they really enjoy it and it reminds me of younger me.”
As an AC, Keating, who as a high school athlete was the captain of the John D. O’Bryant Track and Field team, works with colleagues Athena James and Lailonie Johnson to ensure that everything runs smoothly before, during, and after the weekly practices.
“Normally, we get here a little bit before all the assistant coaches get here, “ she said. “We basically just start setting up and making sure all the hurdles and the long jump pit are set up for the kids.” They then take attendance and direct the children to their groups.
James, a Roxbury native and a rising sophomore at Merrimack College, got involved with YES as kind of an accident.
“My nephew does the cross country in the fall, and I think sometimes in the spring,” said the 19-year-old one-time high school track athlete. “One time I was here, coming along with my big sister, and they were short on volunteers, and I was like ‘I’m free.’”
She said she wants the kids to have fun while running and she credits YES because it welcomes all levels of athletes; then it’s up to them to “bring their own competitiveness.”
Johnson, 20, hopes to have an impact on the kids both on and off the track. “I know how important it is to help with children,” said the Dorchester native. “For me, it’s just all about helping the kids grow, whether that be succeeding through track or creating new avenues. They are our future.”
She noted that YES teaches its kids not to give up when things get hard, to have “endurance at track and endurance in life.”
For more information on the program visit yeskids.org.
