Tulane Baseball Gives Back to the Lubbock Community
Nov 16, 2005 | Baseball
Nov. 16, 2005
LUBBOCK, Texas - Displaced from its campus in New Orleans due to Hurricane Katrina, the Tulane University baseball team has made its home at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas for the fall semester. To help give something back to the community that welcomed them, the team has been volunteering several hours a day at the Lubbock Boys and Girls Club.
"Everyone here has been so good to us since we arrived," Tulane head coach Rick Jones said. "Anything that we can do to give back to the community, we are more than willing to do."
Green Wave baseball players have been visiting the club after school for the month of November for two hours a day. The players arrive in groups of five for a one-hour shift to play games like air hockey, foosball, ping pong, dodge ball and basketball with some of the children from the Lubbock community.
The children, who have asked countless questions about Hurricane Katrina, are becoming close friends of the Tulane players.
Even before arriving in Lubbock, the Green Wave baseball team was very active in its own community, volunteering with organizations such as Deuce McAllister's Shop With a Jock Program, the Tulane Paint Rally and St. Michael's Special School. The relationships with St. Michael's also helped prompt the Wave to volunteer at the Boys and Girls Club.
"We partner with St. Michael's Special School in New Orleans, and we missed that this fall," Jones said. "We have a sign on our outfield wall acknowledging the partnership. It's a big enrichment for our guys and for the kids at St. Michael's, and we really miss that. When we get back in the spring, hopefully we can get that resumed."
The baseball team is scheduled to return to New Orleans and the Tulane campus for the spring semester, which starts on Jan. 17, 2006.
