Posted on Sat, Nov. 21, 2009 10:15 PM
K-State’s Clemente enjoys a homecoming in Puerto Rico
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T OA BAJA, Puerto Rico | In the center of Pajaros, the neighborhood where Denis Clemente grew up, there is a baseball field.
It is surrounded by chain-link fence and stadium lights. The field is as green as the tropical forests visible in the distance.
Nearby is a store with the words farmacias plaza on its front, a concrete restaurant without doors, and a string of low-income houses that for the most part have bars guarding their doors and windows.
Unlike in the Puerto Rican capital of San Juan 20 minutes away, there are no English signs to be found.
Five narrow roads converge on this spot, and traffic swirls in every direction. There is no baseball being played at the moment, but activity abounds all the same.
When Clemente first got into sports at the age of 5, he walked here from his Toa Baja home daily to play baseball and basketball. Back then, the field had rims and backboards as well as a home plate.
The hoops are gone now, and basketball in Puerto Rico exists almost entirely indoors. He’d have to go several blocks away to find an athletic club with a basketball court today.
He thinks that’s a shame. This is where he learned to dribble and shoot. This is where he discovered toughness.
“Every day was a battle,” Clemente said. “You went to the field, put your stuff down, and said, ‘This is my spot.’ Then you had to defend it.”
If not for his time on this field, he may never have moved to Florida at the age of 16 or achieved his dream of playing Division I basketball.
Clemente beat the odds and found success as a guard at Kansas State. The Wildcats’ senior guard was able to return to his home island this week for the Puerto Rico Tip-Off and play in front of nearly 60 friends and family members, many of whom had never before seen him play.
The Wildcats beat Boston University and lost to Mississippi in their first two games of the tournament, and conclude today at 4:30 p.m. against No. 18 Dayton in the third-place game.
Whatever happens, Clemente’s mother, Raquel Perez, says it has been a fantastic weekend for his family.
“I feel so proud of him,” Perez said. “To play here in Puerto Rico, I know he has wanted to play in his home country. We feel so excited to watch him with his university.”
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Perez describes her neighborhood as “humble, and a quiet place that can sometimes be noisy.”
Clemente says Pajaros is one of his favorite places in the world.
“I have some good friends in the neighborhood,” Clemente said. “They show me love every time I go there. Things are pretty nice where I’m from, and I like it.”
But one of his former neighbors has a different take on the area.
Ask Roberto Arias, who works as a Univision sports reporter in Puerto Rico, about that part of Toa Baja and he will tell you about a massacre that took place in front of Perez’s house two months ago.
“Three people were murdered in the street,” Arias said. “One was a 2-year old child.”
Arias’ mother lives next door to Clemente’s mother; Arias said he’ll remember the gory details for the rest of his life.
Arias said kids in that neighborhood are forced to make choices — they face distractions that make it difficult for teenagers to stay focused on school or athletics the way Clemente did.
“It is not uncommon for basketball players in our country to do well in college or professional leagues, but what Denis has done is big,” Arias said. “Considering the place he came from has lots of problems, I would say he could have easily chosen that life. But he didn’t.
Posted on Sat, Nov. 21, 2009 10:15 PM
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