Editor's note: This story has been updated to reflect changes to two incorrect references to South America. Nicaragua is in Central America
GOSHEN — Using the shared language of baseball, members of the Goshen College team have traveled to Nicaragua for three weeks to sharpen a foreign tongue.
Fifteen GC students — 14 of which play baseball for the Maple Leafs — along with two baseball coaches flew to Nicaragua Friday to spend three weeks immersed in the culture. The trip accounts for a portion of the students’ mandatory Study-Service Term.
While in Central America, the students will live with host families while attending classes to learn Spanish and Nicaraguan history. In addition to the classroom and sight-seeing components, there are a few baseball scrimmages scheduled against local teams.
“I think it’ll be really good for the guys to see, as far away as we are, how the game of baseball kind of unites us,” GC coach Alex Childers said. “And to also maybe not take for granted some of the things that we have here. I think it’ll be a really good growing experience.”
GC requires students to either complete a full SST semester, which about 80 percent of students do, athletic director Josh Gleason said. But some athletes, including the baseball team, can’t participate in the traditionally scheduled SST windows because of time conflicts, leaving them to complete alternate courses as an equivalent.
That conundrum is what led instructors Doug and Maria Schirch to approach Gleason about creating the course, called “Sports in Nicaragua.” GC is using this year’s class as a test run for similar athlete-friendly offerings in the future, Gleason said.
“I think more and more we live in a global society. Without going and experiencing a different culture, we often only think about things from the perspective we’ve been brought up in,” Gleason said. “By going and experiencing another culture intensively, I think it just opens our eyes to the world.”
The purpose of the trip is to improve the students’ Spanish-speaking ability and to gain a better understanding of the customs and way of life in Nicaragua. But the location was specifically chosen because it’s one of the only countries in the region that prioritizes baseball above soccer.
Baseball simply provides a backdrop for the trip and provides a common bond. Most of the students are housed with families where either the father played the sport or the children currently do.
Observing the differences between Nicaraguan and American baseball has Childers as excited as anything. The Maple Leafs will be leaving extra equipment behind after their scrimmages as an act of good will.
“It’s not like we’re using it to go down there and get extra practice time or anything. I think it’s more just a chance to see the game in a different culture,” he said.
The students are scheduled to return on June 3. Some of them will be competing their SST requirements by going on another trip abroad in the fall, Childers said.
“I think for the most part the guys are pretty excited about the opportunity and the experience they’re going to get,” he said. “… There’s a little nervous anxiousness about it, but I think once we get down there and get rolling it’ll be exciting.”
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