USD Magazine Summer 2019

with family on the East Coast. “The girl was just ecstatic. She kept looking out the window and pointing out everything she saw,” Silva remembers. “We got to the airport and I asked for an escort pass to take them to the gate. I’ve done this many times before, but this time, the airline agents wouldn’t give me one.” Silva explained to the duo that they’d have to get through security and find their gate themselves. “The girl kept looking back at me. You could tell that when they see someone in uniform, that’s immediately triggering.

The next 72 hours (engine malfunctions not- withstanding) would provide McCready and his teammates a life-changing look into the lives of underserved communities just outside their San Diego doorstep. Head USD Baseball Coach Rich Hill had connected with nonprofit organization Hope Sports —which conducts service projects in poverty-stricken communi- ties around the world — about taking his team to the outskirts of Tijuana for a four-day service immersion trip. There, they would break the 35-man roster into two teams that would build two homes for local families. Now, some three years and three service

Building Hope Baja Service Project makes lifetime connections for scholar-athletes In the quiet, pre-dawn hours of a fall morning in 2016, Chris McCready and 34 of his USD baseball teammates assembled at Fowler Park for a trip into the unknown. Sure, they had taken many bus rides togeth- er, squaring off against rival baseball squads across Southern California and beyond. But this was something special — and

She started shaking as she got closer to the TSA agent. That’s just one manifestation of the political climate we live in.” But there are encouraging signs, and they give Silva a measure of hope. “I’ve had great experiences as well with TSA agents and airline folks. And every day working with organizations that are tirelessly serving these communities, I’m reminded that we’re coming together to support each other,” she says. ”I think this political time will be seen as a critical shift. We have to reframe the way we think. The problem is not immigration. The problem is us and the system we’ve created. We have the power to change it.” —Karen Gross

maybe a little intimidating. This was a trip across the U.S. border into Northern Baja California to build homes for families in need. Like many of his Torero teammates, McCready was nervous — but in a good way. As a first-year player, he hadn’t experienced anything like this, and could never have guessed the indelible impact the trip would have on him … even if it got off to a less- than-auspicious start. “I remember getting on the bus early in the morning, and no one really knew what we were going to do,” McCready, now a senior, recalls. “Everyone was kind of quiet, waiting for something to happen. Then the bus wouldn’t start, and everyone started laughing. It broke the ice a bit.”

trips later, the annual project has become a source of pride for all members of the Torero baseball family. “An experience like this is so important to our athletes,” Hill says. “It shapes them, it provides perspective, and shows them how lucky they are to have the opportu- nities they have.” Everyone who participates understands that the house builds are much more than the melding of plywood, glass and concrete. It’s an opportunity to make a deep and meaningful connection with those less fortu- nate, and to share that amazing experience with coaches and teammates. “It’s really difficulty to get access to a proj- ect like this where you’re making such a direct impact on someone’s life,” says Hunter

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