Twice Their Age, She Still Thrives

Softball teams that play against Oklahoma City University praise the ability and instinct of the Stars’ shortstop, noting in particular her impressive hand and foot speed.

Then, at game’s end, as they line up to shake hands with Lelys Gomez, they notice something else: She’s not exactly like the rest of the players on the field. Gomez might fool them with her skills, but it’s hard to disguise the lines on her 42-year-old face.

At an age when most athletes long since have called it a career, Gomez is excelling for one of the nation’s best small-college teams while competing against players more than two decades younger.

Gomez, from Barquisimeto, Venezuela, went into the weekend batting .353 with two home runs and 35 RBIs and had a .935 fielding percentage. The Sooner Athletic Conference player of the year, Gomez probably will earn NAIA All-America honors this season for a second time, and led Oklahoma City to a 49-5 record and No. 3 ranking entering the national tournament that started Friday in Decatur, Ala.

The Stars have won seven national titles and own a win this season over NCAA tournament-bound Oklahoma.

“When people ask me about my age, it’s weird. I don’t feel like I’m 42,” Gomez said. “I don’t know how people who are 42 years old are supposed to feel, but I don’t feel like I’m 42.”

Neither the NCAA nor the NAIA keeps records on how many athletes 40 or older compete for their schools, but it’s safe to say only a handful of people in their fifth decade of life are giving it the old college try.

Among them are 44-year-old Tammy Mahar, the No. 3 golfer on the women’s team at NCAA Division I Marshall, and 43-year-old Lori Orthen, who plays at No. 1 singles and doubles on the tennis team at an NAIA school, St. Vincent College of Latrobe, Pa.

Perhaps the most celebrated such athlete in recent years has been Tim Frisby, who walked on to South Carolina’s football team in 2004 and caught a pass in a game last season at age 40. Mahar and Frisby each received an exception from the NCAA’s eligibility rules. The effect of those rules is that Division I athletes usually are in their late teens or early 20s.

The Olathe, Kan.-based NAIA has less-stringent eligibility rules and no age rule, and in recent years it’s been common to see athletes in their late 20s or 30s -- particularly from overseas -- playing for NAIA schools. Phil McSpadden, Oklahoma City’s longtime softball coach, has recruited such players before, most notably “Christie” Liu Xu Quing and “Cindy” Yan Fong, members of China’s team that won the silver medal in the 1996 Olympics.

Such players “will get their degree,” McSpadden said. “They’re not hard to coach, because they’re a lot hungrier. They’re not spoiled. They’re over here trying to figure out how the system works because they want to survive it.”

Gomez began playing baseball in her native country when she was 6, then took up softball at age 14. Two years later she was on Venezuela’s national team -- a squad she’s now played on for more than a quarter of a century.

Venezuela’s squad played in a tournament in Canada in 2002 that McSpadden attended. As he watched the team play, Gomez -- then 38 -- caught his eye. When McSpadden learned how old Gomez was, and that she didn’t speak English, the coach was hesitant.

But there was no denying her talent, so he made her an offer: Come to the U.S., play softball and get an education. Gomez agonized over the decision because she’s close to her family, but decided to take the risk.

“I accepted the challenge, because it always was my dream to come here [to the U.S.], to play with the best in the world,” Gomez said. “This is my opportunity.”

Upon arriving in Oklahoma, Gomez first attended a junior college, Seminole State, to take remedial courses and develop her English skills. She transferred to Oklahoma City before her sophomore season and became a fixture in the Stars’ middle infield.

“She still amazes me with some of the stuff that she pulls off,” McSpadden said. “Her range is good. Her hands are good. Her intuition is outstanding. Her footwork is phenomenal and that’s what makes her a good infielder, and her knowledge of the game, through all those years of experience, is something you hope rubs off onto anyone else who’s paying attention.

“You’re talking about a middle infielder. You tell me where there’s a middle infielder at the age of 42. You do lose something -- she has lost something, I’m sure -- but not enough so that she still couldn’t compete for a top-25 [NCAA] Division I team. I can’t fathom that they couldn’t use her.”

Gomez said she’s not really sure how she’s been able to maintain her reflexes: “Maybe it’s God. I don’t know. I don’t like to run too much anymore. I like lifting weights more, riding bikes, stuff that keeps me in shape.”

Softball is the easy part, she said. The academic and social aspects of college are what she has to work hard to succeed in. She does well enough in the classroom that she’s on track to graduate in one more year, McSpadden said.

Socially, she keeps mostly to herself, although she does spend time with the Stars’ three freshmen -- they do, after all, live in the same dormitory.

“We love hanging out with her,” said one of those freshmen, Bianca Bryant. “She’s a kid just like the rest of us. You’d think it would be weird, with her being old enough to be our mother, but she’s one of us.”

Gomez said her playing career is almost over. She might play this summer with the Venezuelan national team, if she can work it around her scheduled internship with her country’s Olympic committee. She plans to return to Oklahoma City in the fall to finish her degree in education and kinesiology. After that, she’ll probably go back to Venezuela, but hasn’t ruled out trying to pursue a career in the U.S.

On the field, she could be among the last of her type, at least in the NAIA. The small-college organization passed a rule that took effect last August that charges athletes who play in organized leagues -- such as international athletes who play on their national teams -- a season of eligibility.

“A couple of years from now we will see very few students who have played on club or national teams playing in the NAIA,” said Israel Negron, the NAIA’s director of legislative services. “It’s going to be less likely, or virtually impossible, for something like this to happen because of that rule.”