Celebrating Clemente
One of the Roberto Clemente displays at Ringgold Elementary School North.
Shown are two of the Roberto Clemente displays at Ringgold Elementary School North.
Fourth-grader Haley Resosky stands in front of one of the Roberto Clemente displays at Ringgold Elementary School North.
Earlier this month, students at Ringgold Elementary School North in Gastonville got an up-close lesson in filmmaking when the school hosted a crew shooting a documentary about Pittsburgh Pirates great Roberto Clemente. Joe Ravasio, the gym teacher whom was the subject of a lengthy interview for the film, said the whole thing started when a family friend found out ESPN was looking for people with ties to Clemente.”She knew I went to Puerto Rico to meet with Mrs. Clemente and her sons three years ago,” Ravasio said. He made the trip to see the dedication of a ball field named in honor of Puerto Rico’s baseball legend. Clemente spent 18 seasons playing for the Pirates. The documentary, “The Legacy of Roberto Clemente,” will honor No. 21 and its release is planned to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the ballplayer’s tragic death in a plane crash on New Year’s Eve 1972 while on a humanitarian trip to his homeland. When producers found out Ravasio had ties to Clemente, they asked if they could feature him in their documentary.”They called me up and mentioned that they wanted to do an interview,” Ravasio said. “They told me, ‘You need to get us into that school.'”The idea to make the day into a special event came to fruition.”We thought, ‘Why don’t we have a Roberto Clemente day?'” Ravasio said. Ravasio said the students, staff and faculty members of RESN all pitched in to decorate the halls with mementos celebrating Clemente, Puerto Rico and the Pirates. Kindergarten students drew pictures of the Puerto Rican rain forest complete with parrots and other creatures. The second-graders wrote odes to the famous humanitarian athlete entitled “21 Ways to Be Great Like Roberto Clemente.” “They did a great job” decorating the campus, Ravasio said. “They only had lunch hours on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday to get prepared. It wasn’t a lot of time, but the school was covered” in memorabilia. People brought in photographs, sketches and paintings of Clemente at bat or fielding the ball. Puerto Rican flags were hung up around campus. Students read poetry and sang songs for the ESPN cameras. The outfield wall at Forbes Field was recreated in the cafeteria.”They even made the ‘406 Feet’ home run marker,” Ravasio said.Ravasio said the day was a lot of fun for the students of Ringgold, but it was also educational. Everyone at the program learned something new – including him. A music teacher had a relative who was a plumber at Forbes and was given one of Clemente’s baseball bats. “It was inscribed with his ’21,'” Ravasio said. “He was one of the few players who had the knob at the bottom of the grip sawed off, so it just came to a narrow point at the end. “That was something we all learned,” Ravasio said. “Nobody knew that. I certainly didn’t.”