COACH OFFERS WISDOM BEYOND THE BALLFIELD.

Byline: Dennis McCarthy 

All the ground balls have been fielded, all the fly balls caught, and every kid on the team has had his swings at the plate.

The JayHawks baseball practice is over. Almost.

Fred Duran gathers his team of 12-year-olds for one more workout. The boys put their gloves and bats aside because they won't need them for this part of the practice.

It's their minds coach Duran wants to work on now, not their baseball skills.

You can't hit too many grounders or fly balls to these kids to make them better ballplayers.

And you can't pound the value of an education into their little heads too much to make them better students, either.

It's real simple, Duran tells the boys. If they don't keep their grades up, they don't play.

It doesn't matter whether they're hitting .500 or leading the team in wins, they'll ride the pine until that D turns into a C, at the minimum - even though a B would be even better, he says.

The kids look back at their coach with eyes that say they understand. They've heard the speech before. Many times. It ends every practice.

Sure they're a good, little baseball team that's won a coveted divisional berth in the United States Specialty Sports Association's World Series in Hutchinson, Kan., this July for the best 12-year-old traveling teams in the country.

But just because they're good at baseball now doesn't mean a thing later in high school or college if they can't keep those grades up, he says.

And don't go thinking that education won't matter because they'll all be playing major league baseball someday, he adds. That's a pipe dream, a long shot scored by precious few.

You'd be a fool to count on pro baseball being your ticket out of the barrio, he says. Only an education gets you that.

OK, so there probably won't be a future major leaguer coming off this team, but why not a future doctor, lawyer or teacher?

Any questions, the coach asks?

You can hear a pin drop as the kids shake their heads no and begin gathering up their gear to go home.

Felipe Gallegos, father of the team's catcher, Esteban, smiles as he listens to Duran talk to the boys.

``He has a way of getting to these kids and making them understand the value of an education and that right now they have a special opportunity to shine,'' Gallegos said.

``Not too many Hispanic kids get a chance like this to play outside the neighborhood.''

The neighborhood. Some pretty tough streets for a 12-year-old kid to grow up on.

``It's a constant struggle with these kids right now because it's all around them,'' says Duran, a plumber by trade who has lived in the Northeast Valley for 30 years.

``Either we get them or they get them,'' he says. ``One or the other. We're in a battle.''

You don't have to look far to understand who ``they'' are. Gangs who literally rule the streets these young boys walk on when they leave the baseball field.

So, it's up to people like Duran and the parents of these kids to even the odds, and right now they sure could use some help from their community.

When you're living paycheck to paycheck in low-income neighborhoods, it's a tough grind to try and come up with the $10,000 it will take to fly the JayHawks to Kansas dressed in matching uniforms and give them decent equipment like the other teams.

``We've been trying to do it with fund-raisers, like potluck dinners, yard sales and carwashes, but it's going slow,'' Duran said. ``I haven't worked so hard for a couple of pennies in my life.''

So, the JayHawks are making a plea to the community, asking local businesses and people to get behind the local team because it's the right thing to do.

``These are good, hard-working boys who deserve this chance of a lifetime,'' Duran said. ``And the Northeast Valley deserves the opportunity to show the rest of the nation the best of its youth.''

Because like the coach says, either we get them or they get them.

One or the other.

Duran can be reached at his plumbing business, [phone].

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PHOTO JayHawks Coach Fred Duran, left, uses Esteban Gallegos to demonstrate batting.

John Lazar/Daily News