Hopewell Youth Baseball
Meet Hopewell Youth Baseball’s New President Jon Lavia
After 3 years with Dave Gigliotti at the helm, Hopewell Youth Baseball has a new person in charge.
41-year old Jon Lavia was recently voted in as new president of the league.
Jon and his wife, Becky, who were both born and raised in Shaler, moved here years ago and have become actuve members of the Hopewell community. The Lavia’s have 3 children, Declan, Harper and Hudson.
Lavia describes himself as a “life-long Yinzer and a passionate Pittsburgh sports fan and can’t stand still.”
In some ways that explains his decision to get involved and ultimately pursue this position.
Hopewell Sports Nation recently sat down with Lavia to talk to him about his new role. Following our lengthy chat a few things became crystal clear: 1) Lavia has immense respect for Gigliotti. 2) Has a ton of pride in Hopewell sports. 3) The man has a long-term vision for keeping Hopewell Youth Baseball strong.
Why Get Involved and Pursue This Position ?
“Like most things in life it was timing, said Lavia. “My kids are going to be around the Kane Road Facility for several more years. I did have a lot of people telling me that Dave is probably not going to do this for another year, what are your thoughts on getting involved in this. I was flattered by that at first but then I sat back and thought, Dave has done a heck of a job and those are going to be pretty big shoes to step into.”
“But then, I talked to my wife, and she was super supportive. The big thing that I’m going to be focused on is that you don’t have to do it exactly like Dave did it, you don’t have to be the next Dave. You just have to make sure you don’t undo all the good that he did. The focus isn’t so much on having to re-invent the wheel, it’s sort of just keeping that wheel moving forward.”
Top Priority?
“I want to see more kids sticking with baseball a lot longer. I understand that there is that inevitable drop-off where you go to minors and then little league,” said Lavia. “Getting on that mound to pitch can be intimidating, getting into that batter’s box to hit, that’s a whole other animal. However, keeping kids engaged, keeping kids interested and being prideful about playing for Hopewell baseball and sticking with it.”
“You don’t have to be the next Mike Trout. Stick with it, make those memories with your friends and just have fun with it. I want it to be where we prioritize everyone from the top-rated kid on every age group select team to the kid that needs work to be brought along. I want every kid to be treated the same way with the same amount of dedication and care from our coaches.”
Pride in Being in Charge of This Organization
“I think pride is a great word to use there. Pride means a lot to us here. Actually, Pride is the first thing that you see when you walk into our schools. There’s a meaning to what that is as the schools have a meaning for every letter in that word. For me, that pride is carrying on the strong tradition of baseball in Hopewell.”
“One of the very first things that I did when I took over was, I conducted a SWOT analysis, where I identified our strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. The first strength with a triple underline was the legacy and name of our program. Hopewell baseball means something to people in Hopewell and that is a huge strength for us. The weakness is that we don’t have a foot hold in the schools. We can’t get in there and give our flyers out or get on Dojo or even get a Facebook Blast. Our challenge is to find a way to reach school age kids who aren’t on our e-mail list, who haven’t played before. We have to get creative, that’s the ‘O’ there, the opportunity that we have.”
“I know that Morgan (Singletary) takes a lot of pride, humbly, in the success of the feeder organization which is Hopewell Youth Baseball. That’s why he did something that I thought was very impressive this summer and take the time out of his schedule, he’s a busy guy and has two kids, and going up to the field and conducting those Sunday camps/practices. That was very selfless and that’s the kind of thing that we’re going to try and keep doing as long as we can.”
Lavia went on to talk with pride about he wants the youth baseball organization to be aware of and represent the Hopewell tradition, while attempting to create memories of their own.
“Another thing in conjunction with that pride and something that I want to focus on is that ‘Champions are Made Here”. There’s a reason why we posted that sign in the radius outside of that concession stand that shows the years that we’ve won WPIAL Baseball titles. Champions are made in Hopewell and Youth Baseball is where it starts. We need to continue building that legacy with that first kid that signs up for T-Ball for the first time. Kids in this program need to see and know how much pride people in this community have in our baseball programs from T-Ball, thru Colt to High School.”
Changes:
As with any change in leadership comes change and that will be the case under Lavia.
In the short term, Jon mentioned things such as uniforms, fan gear for parents, etc.
As far as long term, Lavia intends for Hopewell to have more control over the league.
For example, when talking about in-house baseball, it will mean more Hopewell vs Hopewell. He’d like to see 2/3 of the games we play be Hopewell vs Hopewell, instead of versus other communities.
In the future, Hopewell plans on just tracking records amongst ourselves not against other leagues and at the end of the year, have a Hopewell playoffs.
“We don’t build teams to win league championships, we build teams to give the most kids the best chance and opportunity to play baseball,” said Lavia.
As we wrapped up our talk, Lavia wanted to thank a handful of people that led by example and showed him things when his family first moved to Hopewell.
“ I want to give a ton of credit and respect to guys like Dave Gigliotti, Brandon Davis, Brandon Ambrose and Nick Holsinger for things they’ve done in the past and the way they’ve coached and handled situations,” said Lavia. “The way they represented Hopewell baseball and the way he they’ve always treated the kids they coach.”
Hopewell Sports Nation wants to congratulate Jon Lavia and wish him the best of luck in this new endeavor.”
As always, Go Vikings!
