On October 6th of 2021 on the first Flex day of the first week back at school after the month-long quarantine, many students signed up to play baseball, one of the country’s most favorite sports.
But in private schools across Managua, the main sport has been lackluster compared to football a.k.a soccer. For the past years many students have tried to bring back the baseball program that was at ANS so many years ago. My own brother, Frank Matus, a senior of the class of 2020, who after getting interested in the sport after living in the US for a year, decided to start a team with a group of friends. One problem he faced was gaining full support. What was offered was an academy in which students would pay a membership fee.
This was a huge disappointment for the students as they were not looking to get an academy, but a free school-supported program like others such as swimming, basketball, soccer, and volleyball. Since there wasn’t much support, the petition was left as an idea and the students stopped pushing for it.
My cousin, Enrique Deshon, was one of the people hopeful for this idea to bloom. He decided that when the school was reopened back to in-person learning, he would create another petition knowing that if the chance was given, people would join. Unfortunately, baseball was still offered as an academy. But Enrique didn’t stop there. He created a survey asking high school students if they would join a baseball team, and many accepted.
One major thing that Enrique had on his side was that the new Director General of the School, Mr. Preston Emerton, said that he was looking for student leadership in projects and would gladly support any such projects.
As Flex day kicked off, there were so many eager students who were interested in playing that the field was full of participants. By mid October, there was another baseball enthusiast, Carlos Raudez, a senior who had the same idea. Both students met and agreed that for the idea to work, the captain of the team would have to be a senior, thus Carlos would take the title this year, and Enrique the next.
Now with around 15 members, the team is able to practice and is getting attention from the school’s administration to see that if successful, it could be a program offered.