Ballplayer Visits Eastside

BROOKSVILLE - BROOKSVILLE - It's not every day that a famous major league ballplayer takes time out to talk to elementary-aged school children.

But on Valentine's Day - a day when someone as well-known as Cincinnati Reds pitcher Bronson Arroyo, 30, most likely has numerous other options - Hernando County's most famous living professional athlete visited Eastside Elementary School in Brooksville to encourage kids to read.

"He must have girls falling all over him, and he's here," Title 1 parent educator Beth Zacharias said.

Arroyo, who grew up with Eastside teacher Laura Robinson's children, has visited the school annually for the past several years to sing songs and motivate students to participate in the national Accelerated Reader program.

"It's the small things that count," he told the children during two afternoon assemblies. "You don't improve (at) anything overnight. You get better by doing your homework and studying every day, and it adds up."

Strumming a guitar onstage in the school's cafeteria, he sang an original tune about Mrs. Robinson, growing up and having big dreams.

"It's the Eastside song," Robinson said. "He sings it every year. He wrote it the night before he came several years ago."

At a school where nearly seven out of every 10 kids live below poverty level, the kids at Eastside took the encouragement to heart.

"It was awesome," exclaimed fifth-grader Mariah Jones, 12.

And Bronson, a Hernando High graduate who lives in Brooksville during the offseason, said the yearly visits are energizing for him, as well.

"As the years go on, I appreciate it more and more," he said. "I can remember seeing (my heroes) on the field, but no one ever came to my school."

For the kids, there was only one thing that provided even more of an incentive to read: A promise from Principal Toni-Ann Noyes to kiss a pig at the end of the school year - if the kids' combined reading time adds up to 9,000 points.

"We just can't wait to see her do it," added fifth-grader Rachael McConnell, 12, hopping up and down.