One day Sports Hall of Fame will be necessarily opened in Kropywnytskyi city. And there is no doubt baseball will have pride of place there with its legendary «BioTexCom» baseball team and its coach Yuriy Boyko.
Being a schoolboy Yuriy Boyko decided sport would be his pain part of life. His parents were teachers – mother worked as a head teacher of the village school, and father worked as a teacher of physical education. In childhood Yuriy spent much time with his father in gyms and on stadiums, so in the seventh form he knew exactly what he wanted to do in the future – to be a teacher of physical education.
In Yuriy Boyko’s school-days he like most of his peers was fond of various sports. He was involved in section of athletics: track, jumping, shot put, javelin, discus throw; he also played basketball, volleyball, ice hockey, and snowshoeing. Yuriy liked and knew how to play football since 14 years old. He played for local rural adult team during championships that took place in the village. His love for sports wasn’t limited in only one direction.
– I was interested in all kinds of sports, from synchronized swimming to skating – says Yuriy Boyko.
– In those years, our family has subscribed on many sports newspapers and magazines. I read them all avidly. I was interested in any information about the race, teams, athletes, news, results and statistics. I knew all world records in athletics, in all disciplines and who made them. I was interested in everything related to sports. Football, hockey, and basketball results I got from TV and other information I learned from magazines and newspapers. During the Olympics I spent all my time watching TV. I watched all competitions. I knew all athletes of our national teams and rooted for them. I felt pride of the victory by our athletes. I was proud of the Soviet sports in general. Naturally, after school I had no other options – only Institute of Physical Education.
– Each student, in addition to common education, had to engage at least in one specialized sport section (these are daily trainings and games, in addition to classes at the institute). I chose football section. In those years football section at the faculty was led by Yuriy Makhno. He helped me to realize the importance of discipline in sports. I am very grateful to each of my coaches and teachers who developed in us desire to improve and develop. These people have engrained me the knowledge about many kinds of sports, which is very useful today in my teaching and coaching career.
-I worked as a physical education teacher and as playing- coach at the university football team. One day, the university dean invited me to organize baseball section. Of course, I was surprised: what is baseball? I rejected this offer because I didn’t see any point in it.
-In flight school baseball team was coached by my good friend Uriy Kovalskyi. He worked in the flight school as physical education teacher and also led the baseball section. He set the goal to organize college baseball teams in all universities in Kropyvnytskyi (former Kirovohrad).
In Soviet times there was a “tradition” to send teachers and researchers to gather the harvest in the farms. And thus I had to go to the farm for two months. Almost at the same time Uriy Kovalskyi invited me to go with him and Kirovograd baseball team to Khmelnytskyi. They participated in the final of the USSR Baseball Cup. Of course, I chose a baseball trip and that was the turning point of my life.
During that trip I liked baseball. The whole process of throwing and catching the ball fascinated me. At the end of the tournament I returned to Kirovograd with a clear purpose: to gather the team and train youth at the Institute of Agricultural Machine. Since that time baseball is my life.
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