Oct. 28, 2008

Stockton, Calif. - In honor of 2008 Red Ribbon Week, Director of Baseball Operations Wes Yourth and pitchers Joey Centanni, Hunter Carnevale and Thomas Berolzheimer were invited to Great Valley Elementary School to talk about substance abuse on Oct. 17.

During two assembles of 1,000 students held the Great Valley gymnasium, the Tigers held skills camps, gave away baseball and signed autographs. The first assembly consisted of around 600 K-5 students, while the second assembly consisted of 400 sixth to eighth graders.

Yourth introduced his players to the assembly and initiated a talk about drug use and then opened up to the baseball players to interact with the children. The students had the opportunity to attend throwing, hitting and running stations and received demonstrations from the Division I athletes.

"I really enjoyed it, anything with teammates helping out the community and hanging out with the kids is great," said Centanni.

After the segment on drugs and alcohol, the athletes spoke about the importance of attending college and how to play sports at the collegiate level.

"I think they really enjoyed it," Centanni said. "Everybody would raise their hands and answer our questions and really get a good perspective on something they might want to do later in life."

Gregory Berry, a fourth grade teacher at Great Valley Elementary, called Yourth and invited him to come out with a couple of player this year, as the teacher before him held the same assembly several years prior.

Red Ribbon Week is an annual campaign aimed at alcohol, tobacco and other drug prevention awareness and runs from Oct. 23-31.