French team making memories at Freeport International Baseball Invitational

Diane Simon turns 13 Saturday.

She is celebrating in America — more specifically, in Freeport, as part of the Freeport International Baseball Invitational — while playing the sport she loves with teammates and friends by her side.

For the second year in a row, a team known as the Hawks from La Guerche de Bretagne, a town in France of approximately 4,000 people located about 300 kilometers west of Paris, puts the “international” in the Freeport International.

Simon, one of three females on the 16-player team, is excited to make the most of the trip to the U.S. with her teammates and immerse themselves in American culture and play a lot of baseball before departing for home Sunday.

“Coming here, you are going to get the chance to try new foods, different flavors,” said Simon, a pitcher, catcher, and infielder for the Hawks.

“Hearing everyone speaking English is good. It’s fun to be able to talk with a lot of people here.”

Simon also serves as kind of a liaison for her teammates as a year spent living and attending school in California — her father travels a great deal for work with past trips to the U.S. — a couple of years ago allowed her to enjoy all the amenities of American life and also increase her knowledge of the English language. She speaks it fluently.

Unlike Simon and teammate Noa Racin, all of the other Hawks players are visiting the U.S. for the first time.

“For some of the players, it is the first time flying in a plane,” Hawks manager Greg Penfornis said.

“It is a very big trip for them. They leave a little village similar to Freeport and then they are in New York City with the tall buildings and the big baseball stadiums. It’s a big change.

“In France, baseball is not as popular as it is here, so the team is working to help grow the culture of baseball, and we work to teach them the culture of baseball. It’s tough sometimes because we don’t have baseball games on TV. When they saw the games in the big stadiums, they realized how lucky they are to play the game and just how important it is in the U.S.”

This trip for the Hawks found its genesis in initial groundwork two years ago, which led to the selection of the team last year and fundraising efforts to make it a reality.

“All of the players were counting down the days until the trip,” Penfornis said.

Some of the team members are staying with host families, while others are staying at the Outdoor Discovery Center at Crooked Creek in Ford City.

“I am happy to help my teammates who don’t speak English and might need help understanding some things,” Simon said.

Simon played softball during her year living in California.

“When I came back to France, there wasn’t softball, so I played baseball,” Simon said.

“Then a couple of years ago, I joined this team. Before coming here this time, I was stressing a little bit because I thought the boys would be mean to me and the other girls on our team. But they see us as baseball players, and not girls. I am glad for that.”

Racin visited the U.S. last year with family. He took in a Yankees-Boston Red Sox game, and also spent time in Washington, D.C.

This time, Racin is excited that playing baseball is a major part of the trip.

“It is fun to play new teams and teams who are higher in rankings in the U.S.,” Racin said.

“We are able to learn more about baseball from playing these games and meeting new people.”

The Hawks over the weekend played a pair of teams twice for four games in New York City. While in the Big Apple, the team saw the Yankees and Mets play.

“We toured the city and saw all of the tall buildings,” Racin said. “It was amazing and fun.”

This Hawks team is younger — ages 13 and 14 — than last year’s squad that played at the Freeport International, but what is the same is the number of games played.

They will play seven games in the A-K Valley through Saturday. They faced teams representing Burrell and Freeport on Tuesday.

Penfornis is no stranger to visiting the U.S.

A police officer in his hometown, Penfornis has traveled to New York City several times with a French police officer group, at the invitation of 9/11 family members, to be present at an annual 9/11 memorial service.

“Those trips were very different from this trip with these kids,” Penfornis said. “It is a very different type of emotion. This trip this week and last week is relaxing and a lot of fun.”

Penfornis said that while there are language barriers in some ways between the Hawks and their American opponents this week, the international language of baseball is easy for all to understand.

“The most important thing is holding on to the spirit of baseball,” he said.

“We all know the game, play the game, and speak the game.”