VALLEY MAN OPENS HEART TO BOYS WHO NEED A DAD.

Byline: Dennis McCarthy

It begins where so many father-son stories begin - on a baseball diamond. Where it goes from there is the stuff local legends are made of.

``Who's the kid?'' George Voita asks, looking over his shoulder and spotting the same familiar face sitting up there alone in the bleachers watching him throw extra batting practice to his son, Sam, after practice one afternoon during the 1992 baseball season at Granada Hills High.

His name was Kyle, Sam told his dad. He was waiting for his mom to get off work to pick him up. His dad was deceased.

George waved for the kid to come down and take some swings, but the kid shook his head no. There were only so many pitches left in Voita's arm, and the kid didn't want to take any away from one of the team's top players, Sam, who would go on after college to play in the Tampa Bay Devil Rays major league baseball organization for three years.

``Get your butt down here and take some swings,'' George yelled.

The kid smiled and grabbed his bat. It was the beginning of a long, close friendship with the Voita family for a kid with no dad.

That's the day the seed was planted, George Voita says - when he started getting serious about this wonderful, crazy idea he had more than six years ago to sell his successful citrus fruit marketing business and become part mentor, part surrogate dad to kids with no active fathers in their lives.

``I came home one day, told my wife and kids what I wanted to do, and they said go for it, so I did,'' said George, 48.

He didn't have far to look.

George found plenty of fatherless kids in his own church, at his own children's schools and on local Little League and Pony League baseball fields where he's helped coach and counsel hundreds of young kids over the years.

He found them, and they found him.

``George is like a big, overstuffed teddy bear, and kids just gravitate to him like a homing device, particularly the kids who are hard to reach,'' said Margie Keyser, youth pastor at the Valley Vineyard Christian Fellowship in Reseda.

``We did a survey in the church of the 130 kids on our roster, and almost 50 percent of them had no participating father in their lives,'' Keyser said. ``George stepped in and filled that role. The kids have this incredible sense of comfort with him.''

None of this comes as any surprise to his family, said Mary Herrero, one of Voita's daughters.

``Ours was always the house for people who had no place to go on holidays, or for people who needed a place to live for a while,'' she said.

``Opening his heart is what makes him happy, and has value for him. Most successful businessmen want to keep making more money, but my dad said I have enough, and went off and did what he really wanted to,'' she said.

He started a nonprofit organization called Children of Promise, to fund scholarships, pay medical bills and hire school tutors to help single moms trying to raise their children without a father around.

George went out and found kids like Reggie Marshall and Rio Appling. ``He put us through summer camp three years in a row, and when I graduated from high school, it was George, not my own father, who took the time to come to my graduation ceremonies,'' said Appling, who now attends California State University, Northridge.

He found kids like Chris and Kim Hamilton, whom he has helped with college scholarships and sports coaching.

``I've never seen a guy like him before,'' said their grandfather, James Geeslin. ``He pours out his heart and money for all these kids, and works hard to develop their character.''

This month, George used his baseball contacts to get a tryout for Lynn Novac's son, John - a once promising pitcher who graduated from El Camino High in 1993, and went to the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where his college career ended after two elbow surgeries.

``John still had the bug for baseball, and was throwing hard again,'' Lynn said. ``George started helping him for no other reason than he is a good man. He got my son a tryout with the Texas Ranger organization, and they signed him.

``He's now playing on their class A minor-league team in Savannah, Ga., where he's doing great,'' she said.

All George wants to do is help kids follow their goals and believe in themselves,'' she added. ``There was nothing monetarily involved in what he did. It was done strictly out of the goodness of his heart.''

There are more accolades like this from other mothers and kids - many more.

None of them surprise Sam Voita. ``There's not a day that goes by that dad doesn't get five to 10 calls from kids asking him to come to their birthday parties, graduation ceremonies and weddings,'' he said. ``And, he always does.''

That's the reason his dad's his role model, Sam says.

``The role models we look up to always seem to let us down because we're looking up to them for the wrong reasons, like a job or achievements in sport. The reason my father's my role model goes deeper than that. It goes right to his heart.''

When you finally stop looking up to people for all the wrong reasons, and find the right reason, they never let you down.

It was blazing hot at 2 p.m. out on the mound at the West Hills baseball complex Thursday, but George Voita ignored the sweat running down his face and continued throwing batting practice to his youngest son, John.

George saw a kid leaning against the fence whose been hanging around watching them - a boy he knew doesn't have a father around much.

``Hey, kid, get your butt over here and take some swings,'' he yelled out.

The kid smiled and grabbed his bat.

For more information on Children of Promise, call Voita at [phone].

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo: (1 -- color) George Voita has been like a father to boys who need one.

(2) George Voita, a mentor to fatherless kids, pitches batting practice.

Tom Mendoza/Daily News