Basketball not lost in translation for Monticello’s Pelton

As Jake Pelton handed out pinnies to the Guatemalan students — basic jerseys similar to the ones he pulls on during football or basketball practice each day at Monticello — he noticed something.
“I’ve never seen anyone happier to put on a pinny,” Pelton said. “That really identified them as a team because usually they just ran around.”
Pelton was busy handing out the pinnies to middle and high school students in San Mateo Ixtatan, a remote municipality in the Cuchumatanes Mountains of Guatemala. Pelton traveled there to teach basketball during gym class with his father, Gary, at the town’s high school, which opened in January of 2005. The San Mateo Ixtatan Foundation based in Charlottesville supported that movement, including the installation of the first internet service in the region.
Pelton’s mother, Rebecca, helped raise money for the foundation as the chorus director at Cale Elementary School by holding benefit concerts. She’s also urged Jake to get involved over the years, and Pelton finally took her up on the offer this year. Once his father decided to go too, they went to work on making the trip happen.
To get there though wasn’t easy at all, after landing in Guatemala City, the Peltons faced another journey.
“The real adventure was getting up into the mountains — eight hours by school bus,” Pelton said. “By the time we got there we jumped right on the courts and they were just like ‘teach gym class.”
The region of San Mateo Ixtatan has an extremely high illiteracy rate, particularly among women, and the foundation was developed to help promote education and improvements in the area that can help fix the illiteracy rate and other issues. The predominant language in the area is still Chuj, a Mayan dialect, and while there is a fair amount of Spanish spoken there, Pelton’s limited foreign language skills opened up a whole new method of communication.
“I knew a little bit of Spanish, but it was almost better not being able to talk to them because it established a different sort of relationship,” Pelton said. “We only knew them on the court we didn’t know their family life — they were just kids.”
He’s conveyed that message to the people around him since returning too.
“He learned a lot about how sports can connect people even more than a language can,” said Monticello kicker Dylan Kavanagh, one of Pelton’s good friends who has played basketball with Pelton since fifth grade.
After a few days of teaching the basics, the Peltons organized a tournament between the various classes, with Pelton himself stepping on the seventh grade squad when they faced off against the 12th graders. Pelton led the younger group to a victory over their older counterparts.
“They came with all this enthusiasm and effort,” Pelton said. “They were really eager to learn and we jumped at that opportunity and taught them as much as we could. I learned a lot of things from that — just to be able to play is a great experience and you should just be happy for the opportunity.”
Pelton has gotten ample opportunity to play this season for the Mustangs. At wide receiver, defensive back, kicker, punter and backup quarterback, the well-rounded athlete is getting a chance to play everything like few players at Group AA schools do.
“He does just a little bit of everything for our team,” Kavanaugh said. “We’ve asked him to expand his role from last year and he’s done a pretty good job of it.”
A good enough job that a number of people felt like if there were a utility player or athlete of the year in the Jefferson District, Pelton would be the hands down recipient. As is, he’s been named a first team All-JD wideout and defensive back.
Pelton piled up a Central Virginia-leading 759 receiving yards and seven touchdowns on 48 catches in the regular season, which has made the graduation of Daniel Lieb a little easier for the Mustangs to deal with. He’s also picked off four passes, including one that sealed the Albemarle victory early in the season. Not to mention he’s gone 3 for 3 on field goals and 28 of 33 on extra points.
“Last year I was kind of just along for the ride,” Pelton said. “Now a lot of what happens I have a huge effect on and I’ve gotten used to that.”
Tonight, Pelton, in all his various roles, will try and help spark the No. 2 seed Mustangs to a win over No. 3 seed Briar Woods in the first round of the Region II playoffs.
That’s a task that might be a little tougher than teaching Guatemalans basketball without talking to them.
Might be.