For the first Tioga Youth Sports Association Volunteer of the Year, having a positive impact on his athletes is what matters most.
Jay Zafar became a youth sports volunteer to coach his own children, Zander and Malia, but he has remained involved now that they have aged out of youth sports.
'I just love watching kids grow and being able to help them grow, like seeing the seniors that play for Pilot Point from when they were little kids, teaching them to hold a football to watching them play now, and the same thing with the kids in Tioga,' Zafar said. 'Coaching them altogether, teaching them how to even run a single play to now watching them be superstars on both teams. It's really rewarding.'
Zafar was a threesport athlete himself, playing football, basketball and baseball.
'I was very, very fortunate, one of the few fortunate ones, that got to play for [G.A. Moore], and he was a master motivator,' Zafar said.
He pulls from that experience of being an athlete under one of Texas' legendary coaches in the way he works with the kids, whether that's in football, basketball, baseball or softball.
'He knew how to get teams ready to play, and that's what I pride myself on as a coach,' Zafar said. 'I'll never show up to the field and our team's not ready to play. We might lose, but we're going to lose because we got beat, not because we're not ready.'
Making the jump to coaching girls made Zafar nervous at first, but he said he's grateful his wife Gina pushed him to do it.
Now, girls softball is high on his list of favorite sports to coach.
'I'm a very loud, brash coach,' Zafar said. 'That's just my style, and I didn't think the girls would take to it, but the girls have changed me completely … as a dad, coach, anything. It's unreal, and I'm glad my wife made me coach them.'
Supporting his own children in their activities is not just a priority for Zafar, it's a necessity.
Supporting the athletes he has coached also brings him joy, whether it's the Pilot Point kids like Garrett Evans from his first two years of volunteering or the Tioga kids he's worked with for 12.
'What I'm most proud of [is being] able to take kids and make them focus, make them play whole together as a team, motivate them as individuals to play as a team and just watch them grow,' Zafar said.
He isn't done with youth sports yet, even though his own kids are.
Despite having parents over the years encourage him to turn his coaching into a career instead of a volunteer passion, Zafar likes being able to just focus on the kids and not on the winloss record.
Plus, working at Chandler Cabinets as the head draftsman over drafting and design means working for a business that values giving him the time he needs to be present for his kids, both the ones who share his last name and the ones who have played for him.
'It's like I told them when they gave me the award, I told all the kids that were there, they have taught me way more than I could ever teach them without even knowing, and that's honestly the hidden reward of it all,' Zafar said.
