By Currents News
Before the players take the court and the fans fill the stands there’s just one person at St. Francis de Sales’ summer classic setting it all up. From moving bleachers into place to grabbing the scoreboards and setting up the first aid station, Keith Goldberg never stops moving.
“I’m in the yard approximately 20-25 hours a week,” he tells Current News, and for more than 15 years he has been the director of the church’s summer basketball league.
“I wanted to do what others had done for me growing up, and I got started and couldn’t let go,” he explains.
Goldberg spends close to 40 hours a week volunteering his time organizing the classic. He does so in addition to his full-time job as executive director for the diocese of Brooklyn’s Catholic Youth Organization (CYO) program.
The summer classic started 40 years ago with 26 teams and about 300 people. Now there are 104 teams and over 1,200 people ages seven to 69.
Goldberg handles it all without an assist, and the pastor of St. Francis de Sales parish in Belle Harbor, Queens. Father Bill Sweeney says drafting Goldberg for the job was a slam dunk.
“I have never met anybody more selfless than Keith,” he tells Currents News. “You never have to ask twice and he’ll do anything, anything for you. He’s always around, he’s always looking at the positive side of it.”
Goldberg says he’s not sure how many more years he’ll be lugging equipment around this yard, but for now, he’ll power forward.
“The faith is at the center of it,” he says, “and to do something that is not specifically church, but brings everybody involved and keeps people focused on their association with the parish is very important to me.”
Now you know Keith Goldberg from St. Francis de Sales and how he makes up the pulse of the parish.