With dad in Iraq, local boy connects with legend's story 
01:33 AM CDT on Sunday, April 12, 2009
ARLINGTON – When his fifth-grade teacher said they would write essays based on Jackie Robinson's principles, Adam Gaona Jr. figured he had just the subject.
He would write about his father.
My barrier in my life is having my dad gone for a year or more. He is gone very long because he is in the U.S. Army. He usually works in the office, or goes on missions to fight. All of this takes place on the other side of the world in Iraq. I have experienced this feeling that is hard to explain even in words. ...
Adam's teachers at Peak Academy in Dallas, Danielle Dupuis and Graham Bartlett, entered Adam's work in Major League Baseball's Breaking Barriers Essay Contest, part of a character education program started 13 years ago by Robinson's daughter, Sharon.
Adam's mother, Maria, was elated to learn that, out of 8,000 entrants, her son was one of nine national winners, but she had to ask:
"What did you write about?"
The answer shocked her. She always changes the subject any time Adam or his 14-year-old sister, Corina, ask about their father, a platoon sergeant who, since November, has been in Al Asad, where he'll be stationed until at least July. She doesn't want them to worry. This is his second tour of duty in Iraq. The first came during the Gulf War. After his first hitch was up, he joined the National Guard in '97 because he was tired of being deployed all over the world. And then another war came, and he was back in Iraq.
But as hard as Maria works to shield her children, she can't protect them from what they're thinking. They know he's gone, and that's hard enough.
And that's what Adam wrote, employing three of the nine elements Robinson demonstrated as a barrier breaker in baseball. He wrote about commitment to taking care of his mother and sister, as his father asked him to do. He wrote about determination to stay focused on his education instead of worrying too much.
And he wrote about courage.
I think Jackie Robinson and I are alike even though we go through our hardest, darkest moments, because we have courage to get us through. ...
For his winning essay, Adam was the Rangers' guest of honor last week. He'd never been to a game. He met Jackie Robinson's daughter and a lot of stars. But the best part was going with his father, home on a surprise furlough. For a while, anyway, he's the man of the house. As for Adam, he gets to be 11.
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