Throughout Milligan College’s campus students can spot diversity–in the classrooms, dorms and even on sports teams. Milligan was not always this way, though, and there is one place in particular that has increased dramatically over the past few years in diversity, and that is on the men’s baseball team.
The baseball team has brought in an increasing number of Dominicans, African Americans and Latino Americans in recent years. The coaches are now looking past the Tri-Cities area to recruit, too.
In 2011, around 75 percent of the baseball team came from northeast Tennessee and southwest Virginia. In 2018 that number dropped to 60 percent.
One of these out-of-state players is senior exercise science major Ryan Young. He was recruited to Milligan from Gordon State College to play in the outfield.
“Most of the baseball teams I have played on were not that diverse,” Young said. “I was one and sometimes the only African American on the team.”
Young is from a small town in southern Georgia and has been playing baseball for 17 years.
“The diversity on the team is not much. It could be better,” he said.
This does not stop Young from connecting with teammates.
“You have to get to know the team. At Milligan I have gotten to tell and listen to stories about our backgrounds,” Young said.
Other players have had similar experiences to Young’s. Senior exercise science major Jascanel Ferreras is one of them.
Ferreras came to the U.S. from the Dominican Republic. For Ferreras, playing baseball was something everyone did.
“After moving from the Dominican Republic to play baseball in the United States, the team seems very diverse to me,” Ferreras said. “I went from everyone speaking the same language and having the same background on my team to players coming from many different places and speaking different languages.”
Like Young, Ferreras has connected to his teammates by sharing and listening about backgrounds.
“I personally think the team has a lot of diversity,” Ferreras said. “However, there could be more. There can always be more!”
The baseball team is 18-24 overall and 11-11 in conference.