Virgen: Edison senior’s project helps everyone play ball

There were smiles everywhere at the baseball diamond at Edison High School, the crowd’s cheers growing louder and louder as students in the Edison Special Abilities Cluster program took a swing at the ball on a tee.

Alanah Baptista enjoyed the cheers so much that she acknowledged the crowd by raising her hands. She did it again later as if she were making a curtain call.

Baseball can be a beautiful game for many reasons, and it showed on Feb. 4 as the Special Abilities Cluster players, students with special needs, participated in a baseball event with players from Edison High in Huntington Beach.

It was exactly what Michael Mahony had envisioned for his senior project. But this turned out to be much more than a letter grade. Yet an A-plus would be well-deserved.

The event turned out to be a lesson for me — that baseball, and other sports, can be about giving your best effort and inspiring others. Mahony, and the connection he made with my daughter, Trinity, taught me that.

Three years ago, I was a nervous father, not really wanting my daughter to play baseball in the District 62 Challenger Division. I feared she was too little and that her dual diagnosis of Down syndrome and autism might make her more vulnerable to injury.

Her mother, Kim Doyle, persisted. I am grateful for that.

Yes, baseball can be a beautiful game for so many reasons.

“Back when we volunteered with the Challenger Division my freshman year, I was paired with Trinity,” said Mahony, 18. “That was an awesome experience.... Going through all the bases, hitting with her. It was just awesome. It was a day I’ll never forget. I felt like if I could give my team that same opportunity, then that would be something that is awesome, that is priceless. She really inspired this whole thing because of such an awesome experience I had.”

Trinity, who turns 10 next week, was one of 41 kids with special needs who participated in Mahony’s senior project, which also included 65 players from the Edison freshman, junior varsity and varsity baseball teams.

They all worked together to make it memorable for everyone. Mahony started on the project in November, but soon, more and more students from the Special Abilities Cluster program wanted to participate. He had been planning for a game but changed his project into an event.

Mahony, with the help of his coach Cameron Chinn and SAC administrator Elliot Skolnick, created five stations for the SAC players.

There was a station for hitting and one for fielding on the diamond. In right field, they could warm up. In left field, they practiced hitting off a tee. At that point, Trinity wanted to give everyone a fist bump to celebrate.

The fifth station was like a dugout and on-deck circle, reserved for photos.

The event was the first of its kind at Edison, but it appeared it had been run for years because it went so smoothly. Skolnick enjoyed that “it was from the heart.”

“It was very organized,” he said. “[Mahony] checked everyone in. I watched him modify his plans to meet the needs of our students. I thought that his players were well-prepared and trained and ready for the event. I thought they were really engaged with our SAC students.”

Skolnick, whose son, Hank, plays baseball at Edison and was the announcer during the SAC event, said he hopes the event will be held annually at the school.

Mahony said he planned it with the hope that it will continue next year.

The project reminded him to persevere through adversity.

In June, Mahony, a second-team All-Sunset League pitcher as a junior, had Tommy John surgery on his right (throwing) arm. The procedure replaces an injured elbow ligament with a tendon taken from elsewhere in the body.

Mahony, a closer who aspires to play for Pepperdine University, said he suffered an injury after helping his team to a win in the second round of the CIF Southern Section Division 1 playoffs against defending champion Harvard-Westlake.

He has been rehabilitating and trying to make the best of his upcoming senior season. He won’t pitch because of the injury, so he’ll contribute as an outfielder and a hitter.

“Michael perseveres,” Chinn said. “He’s always looking on the bright side of things. He has this feeling of optimism that rubs off and it’s contagious. He has this ‘do things the right way’ about him that others see. He exhibits it in the classroom, on the baseball field, when he’s healthy, when he’s hurt.”

Mahony knows he’ll have support from family and friends. He’ll also have a big fan in Trinity. And though journalists are supposed to be objective, I can’t help but root for Mahony too.

STEVE VIRGEN is the sports editor of the Huntington Beach Independent.