By Priscilla Greear, Staff Writer

ATLANTA—St. Pius X High School in Atlanta is reconsidering its baseball team’s trip to Cuba this spring break after receiving a flurry of phone calls from Cuban-Americans both in protest and in support after learning of the trip through the media.

St. Pius Principal Steve Spellman said in an interview Jan. 30 that the school had received about 20 phone calls from Cuban-Americans, mainly connected with the school, who learned about the trip to the communist island in a front-page article that ran in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Jan. 27. None of the school’s baseball players is from a Cuban-American family, according to the article.

“We’ve had calls from both sides of this. The calls are pros or cons from Cuban-Americans,” he said. “I don’t want it to be a divisive issue for our (school) family and that’s why we’re reconsidering the trip. I just don’t want it to be a divisive issue for our community and the community at large ... Based on the recent feedback, we’re going to revisit the decision.”

While a 40-year trade embargo prohibits American tourists from traveling to the Caribbean island, the high school employed Transports, an international sports travel agency that has special licensing for trips to Cuba. Transports is based in New Hampshire and reportedly organized a similar visit last year for a suburban Seattle team.

Spellman said school officials, including administrators, athletic director Mark Kelly, the baseball coach and teacher representatives, would meet Jan. 30 to discuss the controversial trip and alternative plans if it is canceled. The school plans to make a decision within a day or two. “You can see both sides of this argument,” he said. “We’ll discuss the whole thing.”

The principal said some people not associated with the school have called in support. “I have had people from Washington call saying, ‘I think this is great,’” he said.

Those who are calling in protest “are basically saying, ‘When you say baseball and Cuba, how can you separate baseball and politics’ ... ‘You’re actually supporting Fidel Castro,’” Spellman said. “And many (callers) have had relatives that have suffered under the hands of that regime.”

The trip for the ball players, their family members, staff and chaperones, which has been planned since November, was scheduled for March 31-April 7. Kelly initiated the trip after reading in a baseball trade magazine of two Washington teams that made the cross-Caribbean voyage. St. Pius submitted a proposal to the Georgia High School Association last fall that was approved. The team is scheduled to play five games against Cuban school teams. The group would also receive a tour of Havana and attend a major professional game.

Spellman said the school didn’t anticipate the controversy. While Cuba is known for the high quality of its baseball and “really emphasizes it,” the principal said planners looked upon the trip as being as much about religion as about baseball.

“What we envisioned was the opportunity for a Catholic high school to visit a country with 4.5 million Catholics, many of whom have had difficulty in publicly practicing their faith ... We envisioned taking and distributing thousands of rosaries and vestments for priests in Havana and other kinds of expressions of our faith. That was the main purpose. You can go anywhere and play baseball. That’s what kind of made the whole thing unique.”

Spellman empathizes with the Cuban people as he lived for two years on the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base including during the time when Castro’s regime came to power, closing down the base and turning off all their water.

“I’ve got a big warm spot in my heart for the Cuban people. That’s what we wanted it to be—kind of a people-to-people exchange.”

Spellman said the teens are very excited to play baseball and share their faith in Cuba and aren’t aware of the controversy. “I think we’ll try to find something else if they don’t go. The kids— they’ll be disappointed. They see things differently that we do as adults.”

Yet Spellman feels canceling the trip would be an acceptable option. “I don’t want anything to divide the St. Pius community or have a negative effect on the archdiocese. That’s the uniqueness of St. Pius—that it’s a family.”