Unbeknownst to many, Oberlin has a strong, glorious tradition of an intramural softball league that emerges every spring on North Fields. The sport unites brethren from many different walks of life, from Conservatory students to football players. This week, two of the tournament’s grittiest, hardest-working and most passionate team members from the BrokeBack Cowboys squad, Fernando Gattorno and Rafa Capo, sat down to talk about their ambition: to take on the tournament by storm.

Leslie: Both of you guys are from Puerto Rico, correct? How has your upbringing in a commonwealth of the United States, located to the east of the Dominican Republic in the northeastern Caribbean, prepared you for Oberlin’s intramural softball league?
Fernando: I like to think of it this way: Every time we play, we have 100 percent of the Oberlin Puerto Rican population right there on that softball field. We are so intense. Back home we used to play with sticks and cans. When we came to the States, it’s like hitting a beach-ball with a tennis racket.
Rafa: Yeah, we grew up without the comforts of bats and mitts.
F: It’s all a part of who we are as a team, as the BrokeBack Cowboys. We make do with what we have. While other teams have uniforms, we show up in our shorts and flip flops and we play just as hard, if not harder than the rest.
R: We are a working class team.

L: Explain the significance of your team name, The BrokeBack Cowboys?
R: We wanted to show how a BrokeBack Cowboy has the same work ethic as any man has, that a baseball player can have. All it really takes is work ethic. A baseball player can be a BrokeBack Cowboy. Humbleness.
F: Team mentality. We are all about the team over the individual.
R: And that’s what BrokeBack Cowboys do. We stick together. We don’t ride alone. L: How has your season been progressing?
F: The season started the beginning of April. We had our first game against the NY Mets. We set the tempo for the season with that game.
R: It made us a little cocky. We won by a combined score of 50-10. Our team stopped and thought to itself, “We are so unbeatable.”
F: After that, we played the Jazz team and won 8-7. Then we had our first disappointment.
R: Our only disappointment of the season.
F: Yeah, you could say that. After we played the Jazz team, we played the football team. There is a huge ongoing rivalry between the BrokeBack boys and the Kingston Donkeys, who we were looking forward to beating, while attempting to play the football team. We really underestimated football players. Our bats were not in sync. Our fielding was horrible. Football players are so big they just crank everything!
R: Speed isn’t intimidating. Size is! But let’s continue. We lost 12-3. We were humble. We sat down in a circle as a team after the game. Steve Le, our captain, got everyone together and had us go around the circle and say what we love about softball. Everyone went around the circle and spoke. It was a team bonding moment. Then we had our biggest test.

Leslie: What was your biggest test? Was it against the Kingston Donkeys?
F: Yes, and it was the Civil War.
R: War!
F: My roommate is on the Kingston Donkeys team. It was North vs. South, brother vs. brother. They were the pre-season favorites to take it all this year. They still are. They haven’t lost. And so we stepped into that game and it was a battle. It was a war. Seven innings. War!
R: War!
F: Nothing given, nothing taken. Whatever you wanted, you had to earn it, and I think at the end of the game, we didn’t come out with a big W, but we did win their respect. They won by two runs so we ended the season four and two. And then...coming off two straight losses, who do we play in the playoffs?
R: The football team, the team that embarrassed us during the regular season.

L: What do BrokeBack Cowboys do in such a situation?
F: We got to the point where we thought that just by showing up, we had won the game. Obviously that’s not true. For the playoff game against the football team, an hour before the game, we were all on that field practicing, fielding our positions, batting practice, getting loose, getting warmed up and getting used to the field. We were business.
R: And what happened? We blew them out. 10-4. The game was over by the first inning.
F: Win or go home! We eliminated them. Our next game is this coming weekend. Steve Le, the intramural softball legend, will be leading us into victory. He is the motor that keeps the BrokeBack Cowboys running. Beautiful BrokeBack Cowboys run free.

Come watch the BrokeBack Cowboys in the finals this Sunday at 4 p.m. on North Fields.