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SPORTS
7
Staff softball team hits homerun
STORY BY JACOB THOMPSON
SPORTS EDITOR @SPORTSEDTHOMPS
Cars w hiz by W estm oreland Park on M cL o ugh lin
B o u le v a rd as th e Red H o t C h i li P e p p e r s ’
“ Californication” blares into the w arm autum n night.
The leaves are starting to change color and school has
just begun.
To the passing cars it’s just another slow pitch softball
game, to these Clackamas Community College staffers,
it’s a way to relax after another day on campus. The ting
of a m etal bat breaks the scene as Director of Student
Life and Title IX Coordinator John Ginsburg knocks a
softball into left center field. .
D u stin Bare, D irector o f Stud ent and A cadem ic
Support, rounds third base and scores the first run of
the night. This isn ’t just another slow pitch softball
team, this is the unofficial softball team of CCC workers,
the Triple C ’ s.
Led by Ginsburg, this staff-loaded team shows that
even the employees at Clackam as have a life o ff the
campus.
Ginsburg loves playing softball but hadn’t always
been able to find a team to play on, so he made the
decision to start the Triple C’ s; a name he took because
of the softball term and a play on C C C ’ S abbreviation.
Ginsburg turned to colleague andfriend Bare for help
filling out the roster.
Together Ginsburg and Bare found seven staffers
including Academic and Career Coach Entique Farrera,
StudentySuccess and Career Coordinators Kara Leonard'
and Kyle Thomas, CCC graduate, Jonathan Gann (class
o f 2015) and four others from past team s Bare and
Ginsburg had played on. The Triple C ’s had their roster.
Ginsburg is a passionate com petitor and is highly
animated during the gam es. For Bare, the best part of
playing is spending time with his colleagues o ff campus
“ It’ s fun being able to hang out, outside of w ork,”
Bare said. “ Really all those who play that work at CCC
are not much different on the field than at work. They
work hard and play hard and give their best effort ip
both places.”
'
Even though Gann had attended CCC, he was unaware
that m ost of his teamm ates worked for the school.
“ I don’t recall ever seeing them on campus before,”
Gann said. “ It’ s nice to see them out of their norm al
elem enU They seem to have a ‘ cool’ side to them you
don’t usually see at school.”
So far this season the staffers have won three of
their four games and currently sit in fourth place in
the Underdog Sports Monday night league. Their latest
win came on the first day of classes at CCC. The m ost
exciting win so far this season was a 17-16 victory on
Sept. 17.
Down 14-4, the Triple C ’ s battled back in th e fifth
inning, putting up 10 runs to even the game at 14-14.
In the top o f the sixth, Ginsburg gave up a tw o-run
home run that put thé Triple C ’ s down 16-14.
The Triple C ’ s scored one run to tighten things at
16-15, but found them selves down to their.final out
when Bare stepped into the batter’ s box and smashed
one down the third base line that scored two runners
and gave tpe staffers another win. Ginsburg was the
most ecstatic of the staffers as the winning run scored.
“ [Sept. I7 ]’s victory had me jum ping and hugging
CCC graduate, Jonathan Gann, class of 2015, sends the ball flying into
the outfield with a strong swing in the Triple C’s O ct 1 game.
Clackamas Print ----------------------------------------------------
people and I didn’ t feel I even did that great in the
gam e,” Ginsburg said. “ I ’m not jum ping up and down
all the time in the o ffice.”
A fter the gam e, if it’ s not too late, the staffers go
to a local pub to talk about work and swap interesting
stories like m isunderstood H allow een costum es or
the time Ginsburg met Bob Dylan. Leonard’ s favorite
story is about Bare;
“ It was pretty funny hearing everyone joke about
th e ir college e x p e rie n c e s,” Leonard said . “ Like
[Bare] declaring a major just a couple of weeks before
graduation.”
-
As the night wraps up, it becomes pretty obvious
these administrators really aren’t that different from
the students they’re helping.
, Photos by Jonathan Villagomez
Pitcher John Ginsburg singles to his teammates that
there is one out in the inning.
theclackam asprint.com
October 10, 2018