By: Nolan Rodriguez
Champions’ TriBUne is a special feature through Baylor Athletics that gives you the student-athlete’s perspective and the chance for them to share their own story. Nolan Rodriguez, a third-year sophomore outfielder, is majoring in political science and philosophy and plans to pursue a career as an attorney defending religious freedoms. The son of Baylor baseball head coach Steve Rodriguez, Nolan spent the fall semester in Washington, D.C., as part of the Baylor in Washington program with the Religious Freedom Institute. The Bears host ninth-ranked Texas Tech for a weekend series at Baylor Ballpark, with games at 6:30 p.m. Friday, 3 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday:
What does it mean to compete? In Western culture, we compete on the pitch, the diamond, the field and on the court; we even compete for jobs and grade point averages. Competition is celebrated here, and we ought to be grateful for that celebration. As Baylor student-athletes, we get to compete in front of sold-out stadiums with thousands of people either rooting for us or against us. Competition is celebrated in the United States, we have manufactured competition into a spectacle, but that is far from where humans first started competing. In my time with the Religious Freedom Institute, I had firsthand experience with humans’ first impression of competition: conflict.
While I was in Washington D.C., in the Fall of 2021, I worked for the Religious Freedom Institute studying and working on religious conflicts and genocides. The geographical areas that I covered were Nigeria, Ethiopia and Afghanistan, to name a few. My work revolved around finding the most up-to-date information on religious conflicts and genocides stemming from religious roots, then reporting that information to the leadership of the Religious Freedom Institute. Examples of the landscape that religious conflicts and genocides encompasses is the conflict between ISIS and the Taliban in Afghanistan after the withdrawal of Western armed forces in August of 2021. That conflict is still ongoing with 33 people being murdered in an attack at a mosque on April 22, 2022. In Nigeria, over 5,000 Christians have been killed for their beliefs, a trend that has grown more violent over the last decade with no end in sight.
I found similarities to sports everywhere I looked. Maybe that is because I missed my teammates and the 5:30 a.m. weights while I was in D.C., or maybe it’s because my work and sports aren’t so different. As I walked to work every morning, passing by the Capitol and The Supreme Court on my way in, I felt like I was walking out of the locker room and on to the field. The more research I did, the more my definition of competition changed. I would watch propaganda videos from groups that painted their enemies as evil and how they desired to destroy them. Much like a hype video before a game to fire up the crowd, they were trying to rile up their supporters into action. There was a fight to be had, there was a fight to win. But this time, instead of a scoreboard determining my success or failure, it was the reports coming back about what atrocity was happening to innocent civilians around the world. When I would check my calendar and see a meeting or phone call, it felt like I was getting my game schedule for the season, and I had to make sure I was as prepared as possible for my opportunity to perform. This time, it wasn’t to steal a base or get a bunt down, it was making sure that I was as up to date as possible with the latest information and offer a solution to the wicked problems that the world threw at us.
Being an athlete, I crave competition. I crave the opportunity to put my abilities up against my opponents and see where the chips fall. But, as I returned to campus and have gotten back into the swing of things (no pun intended), I have found myself viewing competition in a different way. The games, the stadiums and the fanfare, it all felt different. It felt like I was watching a theatrical performance that was trying to point towards a bigger intrinsic good. Like how in Macbeth the plot is designed to show that greed is a thief and not fulfilling, this is how athletic competition feels now. Athletic competition feels like a metaphor for the competition that our world has to offer. In America, we sell out stadiums of 100,000 people to watch 22 men at a time compete on a gridiron. In the areas where my work was focused, thousands of people would gather to mourn the bombing of a Mosque. The sports we play are a microcosm of what primal competition – conflict – is and what it could be.
None of this is to say that what we as athletes, coaches and fans are not intrinsically good and worthwhile. But, as a reminder of what competition is and what it looks like in different parts of the world and just how lucky we are that, for the most part, the most common form of competition we experience is in sport. We get to compete for entertainment and because we love to do it while a large portion of the world is competing because they have no other option, their choice is to compete or be a victim. There are people across the world competing on behalf of these people, like those at the Religious Freedom Institute and the Knights of Columbus. My time as an athlete at Baylor has taught me what it means to compete and to compete well. I have learned to fight for my team, my school, and my community, yet not lose my humanity in the heat of battle. These lessons carried with me to Washington D.C., and will stay with me for the rest of my life.
Previous Champions’ TriBUne Features:
Equestrian – Caroline Fuller (Apr. 14, 2022)
Men’s Tennis – Matias Soto (Mar. 17, 2022)
Soccer – Ally Henderson-Ashkinos (Mar. 3, 2022)
Volleyball – Callie Williams (Nov. 4, 2021)
Soccer – Jennifer Wandt (Oct. 14, 2021)
Softball – Lou Gilbert (Aug. 5, 2021)
Women’s Track & Field – Aaliyah Miller (May 27, 2021)
Equestrian – Madaline Callaway (May 20, 2021)
Acrobatics & Tumbling – DayAndrea Thompson (May 13, 2021)
Men’s Tennis – Constantin Frantzen (May 6, 2021)
Softball – Sidney Holman-Mansell (April 8, 2021)
Women’s Golf – Gurleen Kaur (March 25, 2021)
Baseball – Andy Thomas (March 4, 2021)
Men’s Tennis – Charlie Broom (Feb. 11, 2021)
Volleyball – Marieke van der Mark (Dec. 3, 2020)
Football – Raleigh Texada (Nov. 12, 2020)
Men’s Cross Country – Ryan Hodge (Oct. 29, 2020)
Women’s Cross Country – Sarah Antrich (Oct. 15, 2020)
Volleyball – Hannah Sedwick (Oct. 1, 2020)
Soccer – Maddie Algya (Sept. 10, 2020)
Men’s Basketball – Freddie Gillespie (March 26, 2020)
Women’s Track & Field – Tuesdi Tidwell (March 20, 2020)
Women’s Basketball – Moon Ursin (March 5, 2020)
Men’s Track & Field – Cole Hardan (Feb. 27, 2020)
Volleyball – Shelly Stafford (Jan. 30, 2020)
Men’s Golf – Mike McGraw (Jan. 3, 2020)
Volleyball – Yossiana Pressley (Dec. 5, 2019)
Baseball – Nick Loftin (Nov. 21, 2019)
Men’s Cross Country – Ryan Day (Nov. 1, 2019)
Women’s Cross Country – Lindsay Walton (Oct. 15, 2019)
Men’s Basketball – Obim Okeke (Oct. 1, 2019)
Volleyball – Gia Milana (Sept. 17, 2019)
Soccer – Raegan Padgett (Sept. 5, 2019)
Football – Sam Tecklenburg (Aug. 29, 2019)
Men’s Golf – Cooper Dossey (July 11, 2019)
Baseball – Richard Cunningham (June 27, 2019)
Men’s Tennis – Jimmy Bendeck (June 14, 2019)
Baseball – Shea Langeliers (May 30, 2019)
Women’s Track & Field – Kiana Horton (May 22, 2019)
Men’s Golf – Garrett May (May 9, 2019)
Women’s Golf – Maria Vesga (May 2, 2019)
Acrobatics & Tumbling – Camryn Bryant (April 25, 2019)
Equestrian – Shannon Hogue (April 16, 2019)
Women’s Tennis – Angelina Shakhraichuk (April 9, 2019)
Women’s Basketball – Lauren Cox (March 22, 2019)
Men’s Track & Field – Wil London (March 7, 2019)
Men’s Basketball – Jake Lindsey (March 4, 2019)
Softball – Nicky Dawson (Feb. 21, 2019)
Baseball – Josh Bissonette (Feb. 14, 2019)
Men’s Tennis – Will Little (Jan. 31, 2019)
Men’s Basketball – King McClure (Jan. 17, 2019)
Women’s Basketball – Chloe Jackson (Jan. 3, 2019)
Football – Blake Blackmar (Dec. 13, 2018)
Volleyball – Braya Hunt (Nov. 29, 2018)
Soccer – Jackie Crowther (Nov. 16, 2018)
Women’s Cross Country – Alison Andrews-Paul (Nov. 8, 2018)
Football – Ira Lewis (Nov. 6, 2018)
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