// SPORTS
Cardoza leaves pro ball to teach Te studious
BY CHARLIE SHEW
charlesshew@csdecatur.net
cages with the Guaynabo Mets, a profes- sional Puerto Rican baseball club. Today, he sits at a desk and teaches students at Decatur how to speak Spanish. It’s been seven years since Cardoza gradu-
T
ated from Decatur in 2005. He has played at every level of baseball, earned a teaching degree and hit a couple of big setbacks along the way.
In his high school days, Cardoza took-
baseball very seriously. For four years, he played starting shortstop and was a lead-off batter on both the varsity Bulldogs as well as his travel team — the Jack City Dodgers. “I remember my coach [on my high school
travel team] would let me and my friend train with the Braves,” Cardoza said. “We would get to go to Andrew Jones’s house and hit in the batting cages. Even [Major League Baseball] players like Rafael Furcal and Javy López would sometimes be taking batting practice with us.” Tese opportunities were possible due to
Jack City Dodgers coach and former De- troit Tiger and Los Angeles Dodger Keith Whitner, who greatly believed in Cardoza’s potential. “I wanted guys like Carlos to see that playing professional baseball wasn’t that
12 CARPE DIEM • OCTOBER 2011
wo months ago, Carlos Cardoza was on a field scooping up ground balls or working on his hitting in the
far out of their reach – that it is a reachable goal,” Whitner said. “Tey’re doing the same things those [professional] guys are doing, they just have to work hard and believe it to get there.” Cardoza continued as a leader on his two teams and improved his skills through hard work and commitment. As a sophomore, he joined the Jack City Dodgers and helped the Bulldogs qualify for the state playoffs for the first time in 25 years. By his senior year, the Bulldogs had returned to the playoffs both years, and he had taken his travel team to the number two ranked team in the na- tion. He was named on the 2005 Atlanta Journal- Constitution All-Area team for DeKalb county. He signed a national letter of intent – or a scholarship – during the early signing period, which only the most elite of athletes are recruited to do. He also led the Bulldogs to their first state playoff appear- ance in 30 years. Cardoza wasn’t just a
superior athlete. His suc- cess with his academic load made him stand out
shortstop
from a pack of impressive athletes. “Cardoza was an excellent student,” De-
catur math teacher Stan Flemons said. “He was a motivated and helpful student who led by example, and everybody respected him in and out of the classroom.” The success Cardoza had on and off the field was not only credited to his own motivation. Someone else helped push him, challenge him and empower him to reach his fullest potential. It all came from his parents. Family always mattered to Cardoza. “I
was always a good student,” he said. “But it started from my parents. Tey wouldn’t have let me play sports if I didn’t get good grades. ‘No school, no sports,’ they would say.” The dedication and
“As a player, [Cardoza] did everything with style. He had a little swagger about him,” said Jack City Dodgers coach Keith Whitner.
support they invested in Cardoza showed in his achievements. “We taught them to respect others and to be the best they could be at what- ever they did,” Cardoza’s mom, Ida Oquendo, said. “I knew that, no mat- ter what, [Cardoza] would be successful be- cause he was a leader,” Coach Whitman said. “People listened to him, and he was a likable guy.”
Photos courtesy of Carlos Cardoza
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