Serving now as just an open gym, Sacred Heart serves as the community hub for athletic activities. When the basketball and volleyball seasons aren't in session, from 3:30 to 9, Monday through Friday, the gym is open to the community.

Sacred Heart Youth Center was rededicated to Kansas City in 1981, and a plaque sits outside thanking all of the volunteers who worked on the project.

Former Athletic Director Tony Aguirre stood for these four qualities above all else. He became so well known for them, people just started calling him "FISH."However it may look on the outside, inside the gym floor is in perfect condition. The floors are well maintained, and a reminder of heritage hangs on the wall.Proud of their heritage, and proud of their athletic achievements. Teams coached by Tony Aguirre over the years have won numerous tropies, most of which are packed in boxes at this point, and some just give them as a gift of thanks for all "Fish" did.

Reporter Kevin Scobee takes a look at the many activities at the Sacred Heart Youth Center. Coming Soon

3/8/06

By Kevin Scobee

It’s not just a gym. It’s not just a hard-wood floor with a basketball goal on either end. It’s a chance. A chance for however long during the day to get off the street, to get away from the temptations of the city’s youth, and to be a kid. For many, youth centers like Sacred Heart are their saving grace. A chance to grow up along with other kids who share interests, and to be around adults who make helping out kids in need their lives.

A year-round facility, Sacred Heart also serves as the headquarters for all the youth leagues run by now Athletic Director Manual Hernandez. Baseball leagues, tee-ball for the little kids, coed volleyball, basketball leagues, you name the sport, and chances are, Hernandez and his staff of volunteers are running it. But for the man that works a full-time day job, Hernandez puts most of his effort and all of his heart, into the job he wishes he could spend all his time with.

“If I had the choose, I would much rather do this (full-time),” said Hernandez as he juggled phone calls and visitors coming in and out of his office. “I spend a lot more of my time here. We’re here five nights a week. But I’ve always got something to do (when I’m not here).” Hernandez and those involved with Sacred Heart are doing more than just “something.” They’re changing lives.

“The great thing about what he do is we get kids off the streets,” Hernandez said. “If you look at the kids we have, most of them come from a one parent home where the mom works two jobs. So they need a place to go, so they can stay out of trouble. “A lot of the older kids, once we finish basketball, try to get jobs so the can help out mom with the money. Others may be on the corner doing what they’re not supposed to do. They see the fast life, the quick buck, and all these fancy cars and think selling drugs is the best way to get those things. So we try to constantly have something going so the kids will have a place to be. “Even in the summer,” Hernandez says, “we try and provide them with jobs with our day camp as supervisors. We’ll give them a group of 10 kids so they can stay busy from 8:30 to 5 everyday.” Hernandez’s job with the organization is a lot easier because of the man he follows. But it’s because of the shadow that man casts, Hernandez has big shoes to fill.

Tony “Fish” Aguirre, a West-Side legend, used to grace these walls before he passed away a couple of weeks ago. But the things the man stood for most - Friendship, Intelligence, Sportsmanship, and Honor - still hang on the wall as a reminder of what Sacred Heart, and the entire Guadalupe Centers, mean to the community. Aguirre was a man that touched the lives of many, and who better to take the reigns, than a former pupil. “Right when I got out of school I went to work with the Teamsters,” Hernandez says. “Then as some time passed, I came back with Tony and helped him out with the kids and just stuck with it for eight years. There was just no reason for me to leave. I remembered what he did for me, and then I saw that I could have that same kind of impact on kids, I realized it was something I had to do. “Generation after generation has gone through him. He just - he just loved working with the kids. He used to talk about how you must give back to the community. And so I decided I should.”

 

But it hasn’t been easy for Hernandez. He runs a non-profit organization that’s funded by COMBAT, and it’s not always easy finding the money to do the things he wishes he could. “It’s not hectic but it keeps you busy,” says Hernandez who is always trying to find ways to raise money to keep all the leagues up and running. “This year we just got cut $13,000. That took one salary away. “We do have benefits. We’ll have a Cinco de Mayo program and we’ll work with the church, but, to me, they neglect the neighborhoods quite a bit.” Neglected, but that doesn’t stop Hernandez from trying to do great things for other people.

“Our whole goal is to teach these kids how to be a better person when they get into high school,” Hernandez says. “Most (of the kids) have gone to college and gotten good grades and done good things for themselves. They’ve become a better person than they were. “The main thing is to encourage and to help them not let they’re talents go to waste. So we help them try and get an education.”

One such example is Mike Valdivia. Valdivia, now a student at Penn Valley, started coming to Sacred Heart in the 7th grade. A place to come and shoot hoops after school, and often times, deep into the night. “I do this as a part-time job now while I go to school,” Valdivia says. “But from the time I started coming to this place, it really taught me, through sports, that if you’re going to be good at something you have to work hard at it. It taught me that discipline. And, after awhile, the gym was just my second home.” “Before he was on staff we couldn’t get him out of here,” Hernandez said as he hung up the phone from yet another coach in the volleyball league. There all very excited about the start of the upcoming season. “We’d be here until 9:30, and we’d have to kick him out. So once he got old enough I just finally said forget it, if you’re going to be here, you might as well work here.” It stories like that that make it all the more clear why Hernandez came back and then chose to stay.

It stories like that that show why kids like Mike Valdivia come back and give their time to a place that gave them so much of itself. “If we get one good kid out of the street and help them succeed in school,” Hernandez said as if he’s the proud poppa of two hundred, “then we did something.” But Manuel, helping better lives, is more than something.