The promise of being allowed to hit wiffle balls as a toddler inspired Michael Lapczynski to work through the difficulties he experienced reading, which were not diagnosed as dyslexia until years later.
The Metuchen High School senior’s lifelong love for the sport of baseball motivated him to excel in the classroom through the use of strategies to cope with his learning disability – Lapczynski is now an honor roll student – while simultaneously enabling him to develop the skills to become one of the Greater Middlesex Conference’s best players.
Lapczynski never took his abilities on the diamond for granted, instead using them as a vehicle to help others, nor did he consider his academic challenges a detriment, instead using them to gain life perspective and a desire to perform community service.
In recognition of Lapczynski’s extensive volunteerism, stellar academic record, extracurricular involvement, impeccable character and ability to overcome adversity, he has been selected as one of two recipients of the first annual Marisa Tufaro Memorial Community Service Scholarship (the second recipient will be announced next week).
“We want our students to be strong academically, well-rounded through our co-curricular and interscholastic sports programs, but we also want them to be able to give back and pay forward,” Peragallo said. “Michael epitomizes that.”
Lapczynski will continue his academic and baseball career as a student-athlete at Kean University, where he will utilize his $1,000 community service scholarship.
The foundation was inundated with scholarship applications, each carefully reviewed by a committee that Asbury Park Press sports writer and Kean University adjunct journalism professor Jerry Carino chaired.
“We are so grateful to all of the applicants, each of who was outstanding, and wish all of them could be awarded scholarships,” said Cyndi Tufaro, the foundation’s president. “These remarkably well-rounded and civic-minded students are a reflection of outstanding parents and educators.”
To be eligible for the Marisa Tufaro Memorial Community Service Scholarship, applicants had to overcome adversity (not limited to medical challenges), help children in need throughout the greater Middlesex County area, possess a cumulative grade-point average of 2.5 or higher on a 4.0 scale and were required to be a college-bound senior or senior planning to attend a vocational or trade school.
“It’s very easy to forget that Mike has a learning disability, not because of lack of severity, but because he has really learned to compensate with his perseverance and positive attitude,” one of Lapczynski’s teachers wrote on his behalf in a letter of recommendation for the scholarship. “Mike is an inspirational young man with a heart of gold, who has not allowed his own difficulties to get in the way to reach his potential.”
Lapczynski managed to maintain a 3.23 cumulative grade-point average while performing community service and honing his baseball skills year-round to earn All-Greater Middlesex Conference and first-team Home News Tribune All-Conferencehonors last season.
Lapczynski’s extensive volunteerism includes, but is not limited to:
- Assisting children with developmental challenges as a Buddy Ball volunteer.
- Serving as a student volunteer for the Fuccile Foundation’s Fuce 5K, which supports local families dealing with tragedy.
- Participating in numerous drives – including one to collect new books – for pediatric patients.
- Spearheading at Metuchen High School a small branch of a “Warm Wiggly Toes” drive, which over the past two years generated more than 300 pairs of slippers for hospitalized children.
- Participating in and assuming a leadership role in the Metuchen High School Proving Ground Team Building Challenge, a mud run whose proceeds benefited The Marisa Tufaro Foundation.
- Working with Metuchen Gives Back, a community group that makes sandwiches and meal bags for distribution to the homeless in New Brunswick and other towns.
- Participating for three seasons in the Autism Awareness Baseball Challenge, a three-day event featuring 40 high school teams who raise money for the Teamwork Unlimited Foundation and heighten awareness about the nation’s fastest growing developmental disorder.
- Conducting his own fundraiser through the sale of specially designed wristbands for the Teamwork Unlimited Foundation, which runs the Autism Awareness Baseball Challenge.
- Collecting backpacks, communion dresses and suits for children, as well as winter coats and blankets for children and adults.
- Volunteering for projects at Ronald McDonald House and Elijah’s Promise including making baked goods, collecting toiletries and other behind-the-scenes work.
“Volunteerism is a chain reaction,” Lapczynski wrote in the eloquent essay he submitted as part of his application for the Marisa Tufaro Memorial Community Service Scholarship.
“Once you start something good, others join in. I believe everyone should take the time to help make a positive impact in the life of a child. It’s the most rewarding experience I’ve ever had. It is truly in giving that we receive the most.”
“Although I didn’t fully understand my learning disabilities, I decided I wouldn’t let them define me,” Lapczynski explained in his essay. “It’s a small bump in the road compared to the challenges and adversity so many other children and young adults must face.”
Lapczynski’s healthy outlook is reflected in his ebullient personality, about which Metuchen assistant baseball coach Ken Smith, who first met Michael at Edgar Middle School, wrote in a letter of recommendation on the student-athlete’s behalf.
“One thing that has not changed since I met Mike is his personality,” Smith wrote. “Mike has the same positive energy, infectious smile and demeanor that he had in the fifth grade. He embodies the reasons why I love teaching and coaching.”
In his essay, Lapczynski wrote about being “blessed to have a great doctor who diagnosed my learning disability.” He also credited a middle-school teacher with helping him turn the corner academically through the use of the Wilson Reading Program, which assists those who require more intensive literacy instruction due to a language-based learning disability. Dedicated educators have met with Lapczynski before and after school to provide extra help, and have exchanged countless emails while helping him edit schoolwork.
His parents, Michele and James, however, had the biggest influence, each realizing at a pivotal time when Michael’s dyslexia was still undiagnosed that baseball was a source of motivation for their son.
After Michele read a book with Michael when he was a youngster, she would take him outside and pitch wiffle balls to him, sometimes taking a line drive off her body that would leave a welt. “She did it for me and my love of the game,” Lapczynski wrote in his essay, noting the bottom row of a family bookshelf was eventually filled with baseball books.
As a byproduct, Lapczynski, developed into one of the Greater Middlesex Conference’s top hitters. He is batting .382 (50-for-131) with 43 RBI, 40 runs, 15 doubles and five homers over the 2017 and 2018 campaigns. In addition, Lapczynski has fanned just six times in 155 plate appearances. One of the league’s most versatile players, Lapczynski has played all four infield positions and also owns a 5-3 record with a 2.37 ERA over 62 career innings pitched.
“As far back as I can remember, baseball has been an important part of my life,” Lapczynski wrote. “It has provided learning experiences on and off the field. For me, the meaning of baseball is much different than what a typical fan might experience. I spend hours thinking about the various situations that a player might encounter through the game. I’ve trained hard over the years to develop my skills.”
Players who homered in the event got to sign the banner and the Teamwork Unlimited Foundation, which adopts a new beneficiary each year for its annual challenge, made a donation to The Marisa Tufaro Foundation in the names of those players. Lapczynski didn’t just homer, he belted a grand slam.
Last month, when the Autism Awareness Baseball Challenge was contested again, Lapczynski delivered another grand slam, this one in the top of the seventh inning, lifting his team to a dramatic comeback victory, but more importantly, raising money for a 4-year-old girl from Colonia who is fighting a valiant battle with brain cancer.
“I was running on pure adrenaline,” Lapczynski wrote in his essay of his trip around the diamond following his grand slam. “As I ran touching each base, joyfully greeted at home by my teammates, I had a feeling there was an angel with a big heart and a huge smile rounding the bases with me.”