El Paso Baseball Hall of Fame player wins Teacher of the Year
EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — An El Paso Baseball Hall of Fame player was recognized as the teacher of the year at Riverside Elementary School.
Carlos Lazcano has been teaching at Riverside Elementary School for 18 years, as a physical education (PE) Teacher.
“I’ve always had an inkling for sports. I’ve always also gotten along well with kids and things like that, so it was just a natural shift to become a teacher,” Lazcano said.
He is an alum from Austin High School and graduated with a bachelor of science in kinesiology from Texas A&M University at Kingsville. After graduation, Lazcano pursued his dream.
“After graduating, I pursued a childhood dream of making a living playing baseball,” he said.
Lazcano played baseball winning multiple championships in Mexico, representing the Indios de Juarez and Dorados de Chihuahua, to name a few.
“After about eight years, of doing that (playing baseball) I decided that it was time to come to the real world and start teaching,” Lazcano said. He was recently inducted to the El Paso Baseball Hall of Fame in 2023.
After struggling to find openings for teaching, Riverside Elementary School gave Lazcano his big break. Since then, he’s been a PE teacher at the school for 18 years.
Carlos Lazcano with his family as he was being inducted to the El Paso Baseball Hall of Fame. Photo courtesy to Carlos Lazcano Carlos Lazcano with his son, as he is being inducted to the El Paso Baseball Hall of Fame. Photo courtesy to Carlos Lazcano Carlos Lazcano with his family as he was being inducted to the Salón de la Fama del Deportista Juarense. Photo courtesy to Carlos Lazcano
This school year for Lazcano was one for the books as he won Teacher of the Year for the school.
“This was my first year I won the recognition. I was very lucky to have been voted by my peers or whomever but I was very lucky to have been chosen to represent our school as Teacher of the Year,” he said.
Although he was very honored to receive the award, Lazcano says he doesn’t teach for the recognition.
“You don’t do it for the accolades. I really mean it when I say we do it for the kids. It is our job and we do get paid but in this profession, to last this long you really have to love what you’re doing,” he said.
From El Paso Baseball Hall of Fame player to Teacher of the Year, Lazcano has a new title under his belt: health teacher.
“After 18 years of teaching, this is my first time I’ve been doing full-time health,” Lazcano said.
He teaches all grade levels, kindergarten through sixth grade. When getting ready to teach health, Lazcano noticed there was no set curriculum. He made his own syllabus, making sure to include topics that are necessary to talk about.
“I worked on it on my own, I had colleagues that provided some information. I did the research and found some of the topics that had more relevancy to our students, to our age group, to our population. It was a trial by fire but the kids took it and if you were to ask them, they would tell you that they learned some new things,” Lazcano said.
Lazcano enjoys his work, his kids and his time being a PE teacher, through the ups and downs.
“I love what I do. We all have bad days but you come into school and you see the kids faces. You hear what they say and they light up your day,” he said.
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