The ACU soccer and baseball teams not only make a difference on the field, but also in the classrooms at Martinez and Taylor Elementary schools.
Both teams have taken time out of their busy schedules to expand the minds of young children by reading, teaching math, making patterns with shapes and being mentors.
The soccer team goes to Martinez Elementary every Tuesday and Thursday at 12:30 p.m. The women meet with Mrs. Allen’s first grade class each week.
Madison Brown, sophomore interior design major from Frisco and outside midfielder, said she enjoys mentoring the kids.
“The kids could theoretically read to themselves but it’s not hard for kids so young to get off task,” Brown said. “It’s easy to see that they enjoy it more when they are reading to us and vice versa.”
Brown said in order to move on to the second grade, the students must be able to read at a reading level of 18 or above. The students’ reading levels in this specific class are all over the board, some well beyond the requirements, others at lower levels.
She said each day Mrs. Allen tests students’ progress individually or works with them in small groups. Meanwhile, the other students are left to practice their reading, and that’s where the team comes in and helps out.
“The kids are so excited to see us as soon as we walk in. It’s a great feeling,” Sarah Schoch, sophomore nursing major from Amarillo and center midfielder, said. “We help them stumble through the words they don’t know when they read.”
“The kids automatically look up to you for different reasons and watch everything you do and say,” Taylor Brown, sophomore Ad/PR major from Southlake and outside midfielder, said. “You never really know when something so simple can have a huge impact.”
The baseball team goes to Taylor Elementary every Monday at 2 p.m.
“We meet in the cafeteria and work with four different kindergarten classes,” said Sean O’Donnell, sophomore business management major from Aledo and outfielder. “We help them with their math activities, specifically counting and simple addition, subtraction and patterns.”
O’Donnell said even though some of the kids have hard time paying attention and learning, the team members like being there as buddies and people the students can look up to.
While the kids receive a lot out of this experience, the team also gets something out of it as well, said Tyler Eager, sophomore business management major from Fort Worth and first basemen.
“It allows us to stay young and get our minds off baseball for awhile and just hang out with some kids who really look up to us,” Eager said. “They might not know it, but they’re impacting us just as much as we impact them.”
