Written by Rich Fisher

The Trentonian

As the Miracle League of Mercer County celebrates its 20th Anniversary, Executive Director Dan Sczweck keeps thinking outside the box to aid his program’s Special Needs players and their parents.

Sczweck’s latest innovative idea has MLMC partnering with Next Level Mental Performance, a Langhorne, Pa.-based organization that offers professional coaching services to individual athletes and performers, sports teams and groups looking to manage performance anxiety and other challenges to their success.

Saturday, Feb. 8, at The Yard training facility in Pennington, Miracle League will host an Open House for current and prospective league participants and their families. They will have the opportunity to meet with Next Level staff members from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. and learn about the seven-week series of workshops Next Level will conduct for MLMC this year.

On hand will be Next Level co-owners Rob Tuckman and Giannina Cipolloni, and Outreach Coordinator Heather Sabatino.

“We work with teams, as well as individual athletes and performers, to reach their goals by training their attention, discipline and other key mental skills,” said Cipolloni, a Next Level clinical director who also serves as full-time Mental Performance Coach with the Phillies. “We help athletes to find their focus, learn how to manage pressure, and above all, build confidence to believe in themselves.” The group hosted Ken Griffey Sr. as part of an event it hosted in December.

Sczweck, who has been leading MLMC since 2014, is excited about the program’s potential. He feels Special Needs athletes are no different from anyone else when it comes to emotional support and encouragement

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“Kids that play travel ball and high school ball and go to college all have access now to sports psychology for mental wellness, which we’re learning is just as important as physical exercise,” Sczweck said. “Take care of your brain, take care of your heart. We want to offer the same stuff and Next Level gives us the opportunity to do that.”

Sczweck became aware of the program after being invited to an event by Sabatino, who he knew from playing baseball at Steinert with her brother Frank.

The “Commish” as he is known at work, eventually met with Cipolloni and “through conversations with G, we asked “Is this compatible? Can we create programming that can meet the needs of our Special Needs community? Things in terms of sports psychology, mental performance that would benefit not just our players but our parents too?’”

The answer was a resounding yes.

“You need to look at how you deal with the internal and external challenges of day to day, and provide your kids opportunities,” Sczweck continued. “We’ve built our players to have competitive skills and we have travel teams playing against other Miracle Leagues. A lot of these kids are competitive. But this is the first time they’ve ever been in a competitive atmosphere playing a sport.

“So now it falls back on us, if we’re gonna offer that opportunity, we have to teach them how to win and how to lose with grace; how to deal with success and failure. And there are Next Level staff that have experience teaching in the Special Needs field.

“We’re offering programs to our families that provide suggestions and advice, allow kids to mingle together and have conversations and talk about their feelings and anxieties and stresses they face. It’s a very real challenge for them just like anybody else.”

When asked if he knew of any other Miracle League that has incorporated this program, Sczweck chuckled and said “I think we’re on to something very unique and that’s something we’re very excited about.”

Saturday’s Open House is just one of several 20th Anniversary events Sczweck and his hard-working staff have planned for a league that gets strong support from the area.

MLMC features over 200 participants from 13 counties in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware. The league’s first fundraiser of the year was a Beef & Beer at the Hibernian Club that raised $6,000.

Other 20th Anniversary events include:

April 5: Opening Day for spring season

May 22: Celebrity Bartender Night at Killarneys in Hamilton

June 24-27: Miracle League tournament at Abner Doubleday Field in Cooperstown, NY; home of the Baseball Hall of Fame.

July 19: Despite suffering plantar fasciitis on his foot last year (which still bothers him), Sczweck will continue his Cal Ripken “Iron Man” role and return for his Annual 12-hour “Have a Catch with the Commish” marathon. Participants can make a donation to have a 15-minute catch with Sczweck from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m..

Sept. 4: A 20th Anniversary celebration at the Miracle League Field on Sawmill Road in Hamilton.

Sept. 6: Opening Day for Fall season.

Oct. 6: Miracle League Golf Outing on both courses at Mercer Oaks in West Windsor. Last year’s event drew 220 golfers.

Under Sczweck’s leadership, the Miracle League has consistently grown and thrived over 20 years.

“I’m just a person that recognized the need for it,” he said. “I try to be as loud about it as possible so other people hear me and they join along. I have an amazing group of people behind me to support the effort.”

In looking back on the league’s first two decades, he is flooded by memories of seeing parents smile when they watch their child play after doctors said they would never walk; of children come out in the community for the first time and make new friends; of seeing kids far outlive their life expectancy; and just forging his own lifelong friendships with players and parents.

“You never come to the Miracle League field without shedding a tear and laughing and smiling,” Sczweck said. “Just seeing kids defy expectations or prognoses, that’s the stuff that really hits you. It’s why we need to be here doing it.

“I can’t believe it’s been 20 years already. It’s nuts. But we’re already making our plans for the next 20 years!”