WARREN — Professional sports teams are known for doing community outreach, but members of the John F. Kennedy High School Eagles baseball team are ahead of the game.

Team members spent three hours Friday morning performing a good deed by making property improvements at White Oak Health Care nursing home, which is adjacent to their school.

Twelve varsity Eagles players, head baseball coach Jim Ciambotti, pitching coach Carmen DeChristofaro and assistant pitching coach Joey Cananna were led by White Oak Health Care Administrator Michael Wittmann in helping to repair potholes in the parking lot and picking up branches on the property that were knocked down in recent windstorms.

“I reached out to JFK. I know Carmen DeChristofaro and Joe Cananna. And be it that we are neighbors, I always thought we should find a way to work together on a project that benefits the nursing home as well as them,” Wittmann said.

DeChristofaro, Cananna and Wittmann have been playing baseball together for about 10 years as members of the Mahoning Valley AA Baseball League (MVAA).

Good Friday was chosen because players were off school for Easter break.

“It is the period of the resurrection. There is some symbolism behind it,” Wittmann said.

“I do not have any experience cleaning parking lots and fixing potholes, but I have done a lot of community service. I just like to help the community when in need,” said JFK senior Brennen Sanata, 17.

Before work began, players were offered breakfast sandwiches, bagels and coffee outside on the nursing home deck. Work then began on the parking lot and property behind the nursing home. After removing fallen limbs, team members, coaches and Wittmann carried 60-pound bags of pavement patch to the areas of the parking lot in need of repair.

Although ideal outside work weather on Friday provided a reprieve from the rain and cold, the potholes were filled with rainwater, which had to be removed before the patch material could be applied.

Chuck McCauley, White Oak maintenance director, used a propane-powered flame thrower to heat the patch material once the material was placed inside the emptied potholes.

Several nursing home residents came out to help the players soon after the patching of potholes had begun.

After players removed water and debris from the potholes using a leaf blower and push broom, McCauley used the flame thrower to heat the material. Players then worked together to rake and tamp the semi-molten patching material, the final step in patching the potholes.

“Our residents like to get involved. A group of residents were at the Warren Family Mission helping to prepare for Easter,” Wittmann said.

When asked what his expectations were for the morning at the nursing home, Andrew LaPolla, 18, said, “I am expecting to get a lot of work done, to fill in those potholes, and I am expecting the whole team to have a good time today.”