Player learning Spanish to communicate with teammate
By Dyuce Woodson
April 13, 2023—Last year was Waggener High School’s first year with a baseball team, following a two-year hiatus from the diamond. While head coach Tye Lawson was able to wrangle up enough kids to put together a team, one student really wanted to play, but couldn’t.
Sophomore Carlos P. had been playing baseball since he was five years old but didn't play in 2022 because he was enrolled at Newcomer Academy, which doesn't have a team. He hung around Waggener's team but there was an issue - a barrier if you will - a language barrier.
Carlos is originally from Venezuela and when he first came to the United States, spoke very little English. That was still the case when he enrolled at Waggener this year and joined the Wildcats team.
“The most used term or phrase that we have here is ‘Como se dice en Espanol?’ which means, ‘How do you say this in Spanish,’” Coach Lawson said.
One player on the team decided that one sentence wasn’t going to be enough. He wanted to learn a little more Spanish.
So, sophomore Carsen R. dropped his French class and enrolled in Spanish just so he could communicate with his teammate better.
“What’s better than speaking another language with your teammate?” Carsen said. “He needs somebody there that can actually help him and communicate, at bare minimum, at least a couple words, get a full sentence out of him and try to just be there to motivate him.”
Carsen thinks his ability to better communicate with Carlos should help the team, maybe even make the difference between a win and a loss.
The 2023 Waggener Wildcat baseball team is proving that baseball is a universal language.