Nassau high school student-athletes learn the values of unity, civility and sportsmanship at symposium

For Layla Ortiz, the hardest part of the UCS Symposium lasted only a few minutes.

On Wednesday, the Carey junior walked into Brookside Junior High School in Merrick surrounded by students she didn’t know from schools she had never attended. But as the fourth annual event by Section VIII — Nassau's governing body for interscholastic sports — got underway, Ortiz realized she had more in common with the strangers around her than she initially thought.

“At first, it was a little unusual or scary because you don’t know anybody you’re with besides the kids from your own school,” Ortiz said. “But I started to think about it and we all have something in common. We all play sports or we’re all leaders in our schools, and recognizing that commonality really took away any fear.”

UCS — which stands for unity, civility and sportsmanship — brought together four underclassmen student-athletes and a coach from 56 of Nassau County’s high schools. Students and coaches rotated through sessions focused on goal-setting, positivity, character and other traits designed to help student-athletes succeed beyond the field.

For Farmingdale junior Jack Watrous, who plays football and lacrosse, his biggest takeaway was that an athlete’s every move, no matter how small, can have an impact.

“It’s important to remember that someone is always watching,” Watrous said. “Whether it’s your body language or your facial expressions or what you say, you never know what opportunities you might get or lose based on how you act and what you do when others are watching.”

Hempstead junior Nyema Lattimore took a similar message from the sessions. The flag football player said she plans to bring the lessons regarding the importance of perseverance back to her teammates.

“These sessions were great lessons about life and how to achieve your goals,” Lattimore said. “One thing I can bring back to my school is to never give up. Everyone is watching and as long as you put your mind to something, you can do it.”

That ripple effect is what the organizers hoped to create. Eric Caballero, the Bellmore-Merrick athletic director and a co-chair of the symposium, said all 56 member schools have participated in each of the event’s four years.

“Anytime the world is a little crazy, it trickles down into the schools and this is our way of doing something about it,” Caballero said.

The goal, he said, is for students and coaches to disseminate those lessons back to their communities.

“Our goal is to have these coaches and these kids go back to their schools and turnkey some of the lessons they’ve learned here with their classmates, their teammates and their coaches,” Caballero said.

For Carey junior Vanessa Viti, who plays softball and cheers, the day was also a reminder to embrace opportunities rather than shy away, even when it can be scary.

“It’s so special to be an athlete and have this community and what I’ve learned is to take every opportunity and to say yes to everything,” Viti said. “You never know when opportunities to grow will come, so I always want to be prepared to take them when they do.”

The symposium itself was one of those opportunities, where an entire county came together around a shared experience and used sports not only to compete, but also to connect.

Andrew Marotta, the keynote speaker, author and principal at Port Jervis High School, said so much of the event’s value comes from Ortiz’s initial wariness — a chance for students to step outside their routines and meet people from different schools and backgrounds.

“Events like these are an opportunity for collaboration for the coaches and for the students,” Marotta said. “Outside of this environment, how often are these students and coaches able to get together and problem solve?”