Two-day Cubs caravan makes a stop at Waukegan school
Por COLIN SELBO
WAUKEGAN – Based on the cheers and wild applause from students and teachers alike, opening day did not seem like it was still three months away.
With the sound of the victory anthem “Go Cubs Go” blasting, students at the Alternative Optional Education Center in Waukegan welcomed players and coaches from the Chicago Cubs to their school
Jan. 14. The center is an alternative school for students in the Waukegan Public Schools who have fallen behind in their studies or have high truancy rates.
The visit to the Waukegan school was one stop of about a dozen throughout the Chicago area for the annual Cubs Caravan. The two-day caravan takes players and coaches with the Cubs to schools and communities armed with a message emphasizing the importance of reading and that students work hard in school in case those dreams of one day playing in the big leagues don’t materialize.
“Have something else in case you can’t be a ball player,” Cubs bench coach Alan Trammell said. “To have an option is what you really need to focus on.”
As the Cubs players and players and coaches – including pitchers Ryan Dempster and Tom Gorzelanny, Brett Jackson, the Cubs first overall pick in the 2009 draft, and pitching coach Larry Rothschild – gathered on stage, they were shown a video presentation recorded and produced by students at the Alternative Optional Education Center.
The video featured local officials, including Waukegan Mayor Bob Sabonjian, Waukegan police chief Artis Yancey and Waukegan fire chief Daniel Young, being interviewed by students and talking about the importance of reading in their jobs.
Following the video, the athletes and coaches took questions from the students.
“Don’t let anyone tell you can’t do something, because you can,” Rothschild said. “Everybody is going to have failures, but people who are successful overcome those failures.”
Jose Correa, 17, said the message from the players not to do drugs or join gangs will resonate with him.
The school spent two months preparing for the visit, he said, and the excitement leading up to the day was evident.
“It was awsome,” Correa said. “They gave me a lot of motivation to stay in school.”
When asked how many home runs he had hit in his life, Dempster told the students that as a pitcher, home runs are a bit of a rarity in games. But batting practice is a different story, he said.
“Those count,” Dempster said. “Those are going to go on the back of my own baseball card someday.”
