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Coro: Colato carries Salvadoran flag to GCU
9/7/2020 9:00:00 AM | Baseball, Paul Coro
Senior called nation's 1st born-and-raised DI baseball scholarship player
If not for El Salvador's 12-year civil war, Fernandomania in California, hitting wads of paper with a broomstick, an uncle living in Phoenix and a chance Christmastime meeting, Juan Colato might not be starting his senior year at Grand Canyon this week with two bright futures – in baseball and engineering.
Pursuing a college degree on a baseball scholarship was the goal that his parents, Marcos and Katia, set for their oldest child when they hatched a plan as he started school in San Salvador.
Juan backed the plan with passion and purpose in the years since then. He is now believed to be the first player born and raised in El Salvador to play Division I
baseball on an athletic scholarship.
"It's like a movie script for him because he's been battling a lot of players, obstacles, the language and coaches who didn't believe in him," Marcos said. "It's a very nice story that he made for himself."
Juan is a success in numbers, whether it be his team-leading .367 batting average last season, his 3.5 GPA in engineering or being the one Salvadoran among 6.5 million to blaze this trail for his country.
With equal parts scheme, drive and serendipity, Juan relishes the opportunity he has seized.
"It means a lot to me," Juan said. "I try not to forget it. I try to always remember where I came from. I try to always think about my friends who weren't as lucky as I was, to have my uncle here and all the other stuff. I work hard for it."
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The Juan plan
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When the civil war began in El Salvador in 1979, Marcos' father moved the family to San Jose, California, once he became a target.
In the U.S., Marcos and his brother, Oscar, quickly fell in love with baseball, especially when Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Fernando Valenzuela stirred an international Latino following in the 1980s with his Hall-of-Fame work on the mound.
The Colatos returned to El Salvador in 1986, but an impression of the American pastime and educational opportunities were laid.
Twelve years later, Marcos and Katia welcomed the first of three kids, Juan. They strategically introduced baseball to him at age 6 after he developed a disdain for swimming and as they avoided soccer for its popularity.
For nearly a month, Juan cried that he did not want to play baseball. For years after that, a smile was as hard to remove from Juan as a bat or a glove.
Within two years, he was invited to play on the 10-and-under national team with players almost two years older than him.
"The only way to keep playing in El Salvador is if you're a good player," Juan said. "If you're an OK player, your career stops when you're 16 years old."
Juan played in the baseball academy Agabeisi, but only when his academics were in high order. After all, the plan was for college baseball, not the usual local hope of Major League Baseball scouts catching a glimpse and offering a small minor-league contract on one or two visits per year.
His national team played across Central America and twice lost a chance to go to the Little League World Series in 2015 and 2016 to Curacao ("It still hurts," Juan said). He played in front of 15,000 people in the 2018 Central American Games in Nicaragua. In his debut as a center fielder, he lost the game but received personal kudos from the former MLB pitcher with his name on the stadium – Dennis Martinez.
"As I got older, it got more serious because people were believing in me and noticing me more," Juan said. "So I was like, 'Oh, I can do something with this.' I took it more seriously and I came to Phoenix, thank God."
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The GCU path
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Despite his developing talent, no U.S. college program showed interest in Juan as hoped. It is rare for Salvadorans to play college baseball. Ricardo Barba-Ghiringhello did it at Kansas on an academic scholarship in the late 1980s. Henry Bonilla played at Tulane in the late 1990s but he moved from El Salvador to Nevada when he was 5.
No Salvadoran has reached the Major Leagues, although Nicaraguan-born Erasmo Ramirez played at an El Salvador academy as a teenager before being signed as an undrafted free agent and pitching for MLB teams from 2012 to 2019.
"That was never our sight," Marcos said. "He always wanted to be an engineer."
Two of his aunts are engineers in El Salvador, but studying it in the U.S. was going to take good grades and good fortune. Juan took English classes at various times during his childhood with an expectation that he would need it at an American college.
The Colatos visited Marcos' brother, Oscar, in Phoenix for Christmas when Juan was 16. They entered Juan in a holiday baseball tournament in nearby Goodyear, where the coach was replaced at the last minute by Daniel Padilla, an assistant coach at South Mountain Community College who took a liking to the skinny infielder.
When it came time for college, Juan was not being recruited so he e-mailed Padilla to ask if he could play for South Mountain. Without a roster guarantee, Colato moved into Oscar's house in Phoenix and enrolled at South Mountain with Oscar paying his tuition and Juan trying out for a walk-on spot.
"Without Oscar, it would have been impossible," said Marcos, who operates from El Salvador as a transaction coordinator for Oscar's real estate business in Phoenix. "He took him in as his son."
Juan made the team and thrived, finishing as South Mountain's MVP runner-up with a team-best .383 batting average.
Because Oscar lived 3 miles east of GCU, Juan became familiar with the Lopes as they enjoyed basketball season tickets and attended baseball games after GCU Ballpark opened in 2018.
When it came time to make a list of college preferences, Juan listed GCU first. Lopes assistant coach Gregg Wallis' initial phone conversation with Juan was so impressionable that Wallis remembers where he was driving on I-10 in California when it took place.
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The Lopes fit
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Juan broke his right elbow in his sophomore season's opener for South Mountain. Frustrated from an 0-for-3 start, he stole a base after a single with his team trailing by six and jammed his throwing arm on a head-first slide.
Told that he faced surgery and a lengthy rehabilitation, the GCU recruit called Lopes head coach Andy Stankiewicz from the hospital to inform him. He found out how GCU coaches stick to a pledge to make signees part of the Lopes family.
"Don't worry, just get better," Juan remembers Stankiewicz telling him. "We'll be here for you."
Juan redshirted his sophomore season and was limited for his first fall ball at GCU, although the bat speed and raw tools began to surface.
Stankiewicz could also see how much Juan was taking on academically, when the weight of his engineering studies appeared as heavy as any barbell at morning weight training sessions.
"Coming into a new language, I figured it was easier to use numbers because they are the same in Spanish and English," Juan said of choosing engineering. "I would rather do that then read a 1,000-page book."
His childhood English lessons had him treading water during his first semester of community college, where the language came fast and teammates' slang confused him. By baseball season, he adjusted and he adapted well to GCU with the guidance of Student-Athlete Development associate director Carly LaBombard.
Colato opened the Lopes season in February as the starting left-fielder and went 3 for 4 against Oklahoma State. It was clear that several Salvadorans watched the country's pioneer on GCU TV when he had 20 congratulatory messages waiting on his phone.
"The character and the personality of the young man is off the charts," Stankiewicz said. "His teammates love him. He loves being part of the team. It's genuine.
"To me, he's Grand Canyon University. He's everything that President (Brian) Mueller shares about this diverse community. We have a young man from El Salvador by way of South Mountain. You appreciate his drive and fortitude."
Â
The level ahead
Â
Juan finished the Coronavirus-shortened season ranked in the national top 10 for hits (29, sixth) and total bases (49, eighth). With five home runs in 79 at bats, his home run rate was the best of any Lopes player since 1996.
"He reminds me of Melky Cabrera," Stankiewicz said of the Dominican player who he coached in the Yankees' minor leagues before Cabrera played 15 MLB seasons with an All-Star appearance and a World Series championship.
"Very handsy. Can run. Switch-hitter with some sock in his bat and range. I think this is the tip of the iceberg. The more he plays and the more he learns the game, he's going to become a pretty special player. He's got a great future past his time here."
Juan was set to play in the prestigious Cape Cod Baseball League until it was canceled due to COVID-19Â this summer. Another South Mountain assistant coach, Tyler Gillum, took him on his Savannah Bananas team in the Coastal Plain League, where many Cape Cod players wound up in the Southeast for a wood-bat league experience.
Colato hit .277 with 12 stolen bases (fourth in the league) and a slugging percentage of .479 because of four home runs, five doubles and a triple in 94 at bats.
Colato was in the outfield this summer and last season but has moved back to his natural home in the middle infield during Lopes fall ball in advance of his junior season.
"I only have the best regard and feelings for GCU for the opportunity they gave my son," Marcos said. "It's been the game-changer of his life that GCU took him into consideration and took him in as part of their team. We're GCU fans for life."
And vice-versa. The Lopes are fans of Juan for life because of how he appreciates and capitalizes on opportunities in the field and the classroom.
He grew up middle class in El Salvador, but access to baseball gear still was sparse. Juan and his friends hit wadded-up paper and bottlecaps with a broomstick. Even on a baseball academy field, players joked that they needed hand-eye coordination and luck to be good fielders on an uneven surface.
Now, he marvels at the quality of classroom chairs, the beauty of Brazell Field grass and the availability of facilities and staffers to help him reach his potential.
Just as his father suggested, Juan is starring in real-life cinema.
"I'm getting to live that college life that you see in the movies and I'm glad," Juan said.
Follow Paul Coro on Twitter: @paulcoro.
Â
Pursuing a college degree on a baseball scholarship was the goal that his parents, Marcos and Katia, set for their oldest child when they hatched a plan as he started school in San Salvador.
Juan backed the plan with passion and purpose in the years since then. He is now believed to be the first player born and raised in El Salvador to play Division I
baseball on an athletic scholarship."It's like a movie script for him because he's been battling a lot of players, obstacles, the language and coaches who didn't believe in him," Marcos said. "It's a very nice story that he made for himself."
Juan is a success in numbers, whether it be his team-leading .367 batting average last season, his 3.5 GPA in engineering or being the one Salvadoran among 6.5 million to blaze this trail for his country.
With equal parts scheme, drive and serendipity, Juan relishes the opportunity he has seized.
"It means a lot to me," Juan said. "I try not to forget it. I try to always remember where I came from. I try to always think about my friends who weren't as lucky as I was, to have my uncle here and all the other stuff. I work hard for it."
Â
The Juan plan
Â
When the civil war began in El Salvador in 1979, Marcos' father moved the family to San Jose, California, once he became a target.
In the U.S., Marcos and his brother, Oscar, quickly fell in love with baseball, especially when Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Fernando Valenzuela stirred an international Latino following in the 1980s with his Hall-of-Fame work on the mound.
The Colatos returned to El Salvador in 1986, but an impression of the American pastime and educational opportunities were laid.
Twelve years later, Marcos and Katia welcomed the first of three kids, Juan. They strategically introduced baseball to him at age 6 after he developed a disdain for swimming and as they avoided soccer for its popularity.
For nearly a month, Juan cried that he did not want to play baseball. For years after that, a smile was as hard to remove from Juan as a bat or a glove.
Within two years, he was invited to play on the 10-and-under national team with players almost two years older than him.
"The only way to keep playing in El Salvador is if you're a good player," Juan said. "If you're an OK player, your career stops when you're 16 years old."Juan played in the baseball academy Agabeisi, but only when his academics were in high order. After all, the plan was for college baseball, not the usual local hope of Major League Baseball scouts catching a glimpse and offering a small minor-league contract on one or two visits per year.
His national team played across Central America and twice lost a chance to go to the Little League World Series in 2015 and 2016 to Curacao ("It still hurts," Juan said). He played in front of 15,000 people in the 2018 Central American Games in Nicaragua. In his debut as a center fielder, he lost the game but received personal kudos from the former MLB pitcher with his name on the stadium – Dennis Martinez.
"As I got older, it got more serious because people were believing in me and noticing me more," Juan said. "So I was like, 'Oh, I can do something with this.' I took it more seriously and I came to Phoenix, thank God."
Â
The GCU path
Â
Despite his developing talent, no U.S. college program showed interest in Juan as hoped. It is rare for Salvadorans to play college baseball. Ricardo Barba-Ghiringhello did it at Kansas on an academic scholarship in the late 1980s. Henry Bonilla played at Tulane in the late 1990s but he moved from El Salvador to Nevada when he was 5.
No Salvadoran has reached the Major Leagues, although Nicaraguan-born Erasmo Ramirez played at an El Salvador academy as a teenager before being signed as an undrafted free agent and pitching for MLB teams from 2012 to 2019.
"That was never our sight," Marcos said. "He always wanted to be an engineer."
Two of his aunts are engineers in El Salvador, but studying it in the U.S. was going to take good grades and good fortune. Juan took English classes at various times during his childhood with an expectation that he would need it at an American college.
The Colatos visited Marcos' brother, Oscar, in Phoenix for Christmas when Juan was 16. They entered Juan in a holiday baseball tournament in nearby Goodyear, where the coach was replaced at the last minute by Daniel Padilla, an assistant coach at South Mountain Community College who took a liking to the skinny infielder.
When it came time for college, Juan was not being recruited so he e-mailed Padilla to ask if he could play for South Mountain. Without a roster guarantee, Colato moved into Oscar's house in Phoenix and enrolled at South Mountain with Oscar paying his tuition and Juan trying out for a walk-on spot.
"Without Oscar, it would have been impossible," said Marcos, who operates from El Salvador as a transaction coordinator for Oscar's real estate business in Phoenix. "He took him in as his son."
Juan made the team and thrived, finishing as South Mountain's MVP runner-up with a team-best .383 batting average.
Because Oscar lived 3 miles east of GCU, Juan became familiar with the Lopes as they enjoyed basketball season tickets and attended baseball games after GCU Ballpark opened in 2018.
When it came time to make a list of college preferences, Juan listed GCU first. Lopes assistant coach Gregg Wallis' initial phone conversation with Juan was so impressionable that Wallis remembers where he was driving on I-10 in California when it took place.
Â
The Lopes fit
Â
Juan broke his right elbow in his sophomore season's opener for South Mountain. Frustrated from an 0-for-3 start, he stole a base after a single with his team trailing by six and jammed his throwing arm on a head-first slide.
Told that he faced surgery and a lengthy rehabilitation, the GCU recruit called Lopes head coach Andy Stankiewicz from the hospital to inform him. He found out how GCU coaches stick to a pledge to make signees part of the Lopes family.
"Don't worry, just get better," Juan remembers Stankiewicz telling him. "We'll be here for you."
Juan redshirted his sophomore season and was limited for his first fall ball at GCU, although the bat speed and raw tools began to surface.
Stankiewicz could also see how much Juan was taking on academically, when the weight of his engineering studies appeared as heavy as any barbell at morning weight training sessions.
"Coming into a new language, I figured it was easier to use numbers because they are the same in Spanish and English," Juan said of choosing engineering. "I would rather do that then read a 1,000-page book."
His childhood English lessons had him treading water during his first semester of community college, where the language came fast and teammates' slang confused him. By baseball season, he adjusted and he adapted well to GCU with the guidance of Student-Athlete Development associate director Carly LaBombard.
Colato opened the Lopes season in February as the starting left-fielder and went 3 for 4 against Oklahoma State. It was clear that several Salvadorans watched the country's pioneer on GCU TV when he had 20 congratulatory messages waiting on his phone.
"The character and the personality of the young man is off the charts," Stankiewicz said. "His teammates love him. He loves being part of the team. It's genuine.
"To me, he's Grand Canyon University. He's everything that President (Brian) Mueller shares about this diverse community. We have a young man from El Salvador by way of South Mountain. You appreciate his drive and fortitude."
Â
The level ahead
Â
Juan finished the Coronavirus-shortened season ranked in the national top 10 for hits (29, sixth) and total bases (49, eighth). With five home runs in 79 at bats, his home run rate was the best of any Lopes player since 1996.
"He reminds me of Melky Cabrera," Stankiewicz said of the Dominican player who he coached in the Yankees' minor leagues before Cabrera played 15 MLB seasons with an All-Star appearance and a World Series championship."Very handsy. Can run. Switch-hitter with some sock in his bat and range. I think this is the tip of the iceberg. The more he plays and the more he learns the game, he's going to become a pretty special player. He's got a great future past his time here."
Juan was set to play in the prestigious Cape Cod Baseball League until it was canceled due to COVID-19Â this summer. Another South Mountain assistant coach, Tyler Gillum, took him on his Savannah Bananas team in the Coastal Plain League, where many Cape Cod players wound up in the Southeast for a wood-bat league experience.
Colato hit .277 with 12 stolen bases (fourth in the league) and a slugging percentage of .479 because of four home runs, five doubles and a triple in 94 at bats.
Colato was in the outfield this summer and last season but has moved back to his natural home in the middle infield during Lopes fall ball in advance of his junior season.
"I only have the best regard and feelings for GCU for the opportunity they gave my son," Marcos said. "It's been the game-changer of his life that GCU took him into consideration and took him in as part of their team. We're GCU fans for life."
And vice-versa. The Lopes are fans of Juan for life because of how he appreciates and capitalizes on opportunities in the field and the classroom.
He grew up middle class in El Salvador, but access to baseball gear still was sparse. Juan and his friends hit wadded-up paper and bottlecaps with a broomstick. Even on a baseball academy field, players joked that they needed hand-eye coordination and luck to be good fielders on an uneven surface.
Now, he marvels at the quality of classroom chairs, the beauty of Brazell Field grass and the availability of facilities and staffers to help him reach his potential.
Just as his father suggested, Juan is starring in real-life cinema.
"I'm getting to live that college life that you see in the movies and I'm glad," Juan said.
Follow Paul Coro on Twitter: @paulcoro.
Â
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