Basil Tarasko
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Basil P Tarasko, 60, is an Ukrainian-American baseball coach from Bayside, New York. He is a member of the Executive Board of the Ukrainian Sports Club of New York (YCK) and a member of USCAK, Ukrainian Sports Federation of the United States and Canada.[1] He is also coach of the National Baseball Teams of Ukraine; a regular columnist (covering Eastern European Baseball) for the International Baseball Rundown magazine; district administrator of the Little Leagues in Ukraine and head baseball coach at Kingsborough Community College in Brooklyn, N.Y.[2]
He also runs a website, where he promotes the game and sells baseball merchandise from his garage in Bayside.[3]
He is of Ukranian descent and often travels to the Ukraine to teach children baseball. He has been described as very influential in bringing the game to the former-Soviet country during a period of economic decline. Thanks to this, he is highly regarded amongst the Ukranians and is always welcomed back. He helped facilitate the Juvenile National Team's entry to the European Championship, in 1996, where they finished fifth. His passionate and patriotic approach to coaching has captured the imagination of the Ukranian youth. Indeed, one newspaper heralded him, along with Chelsea F.C. soccer star Andriy Shevchenko, one of the "Saviors of Ukranian sport."[4]
[edit] Family life
Tarasko started out as a mathematics teacher[5] before giving it up to help develop baseball in Ukranian orphanages.
According to his AOL Member Profile[6], Tarasko is married with 2 sons.
Basil divides his time between coaching, selling his merchandise and travelling upstate to look after relatives.
