Colin Salgado Lindo, left, a Valley High School graduate, signs a letter of intent to play volleyball for Kansas Wesleyan University during a signing event at the Cambridge Recreation Center Wednesday, Dec. 30, 2020. At right are Salgado’s brother Giancarlo, 12, and his father Edgard Salgado.
Monday, Jan. 4, 2021 | 2 a.m.
A few signatures on a letter of intent separated Colin Salgado Lindo from his dream of becoming a collegiate volleyball player. It was the goal that made the 19-year-old burst into tears the day he was informed the university had accepted him, but also the vision that the pandemic nearly derailed, when it canceled what was to be his breakout senior season.
Salgado Lindo, a Valley High School graduate, was so eager to sign the papers that he chose not to give a speech Wednesday inside a Las Vegas recreation center.
“Just get to signing,” the teen told Thomas Smith, the Valley High School assistant principal in charge of athletics, when asked what he wanted to do.
The purple-and-yellow folder held the documents that crystallized Kansas Wesleyan University’s offer of a full-ride, four-year scholarship. Salgado Lindo’s mask and moppy hair could barely conceal the joy on his face. He signed in front of small group of family and friends.
The journey to getting to the day wasn’t lost on him as he signed the papers.
He transformed from being a misunderstood troublemaker, who was a constant presence in the dean’s office, into an exemplary student and leader on the volleyball court.
And that’s not all he overcame.
The canceled season last spring was supposed to be his showcase for college recruiters. Instead, he was left with a helpless feeling that he may never play again.
“It was horrible,” Salgado Lindo said. “I was waiting for my senior game. ... I didn’t get to play at all.”
Smith also remembers the painful day in March when the Clark County School District canceled athletics and sent students home for virtual learning the remainder of the year.
Smith labeled it as “easily one of his worst days” in athletics, knowing he was delivering a message that would have a negative impact on the student-athletes at inner-city Valley, where afterschool activities are paramount in keeping children occupied.
“Are we going to lose this kid now?” Smith wondered about Salgado Lindo.
Smith said his colleagues at Valley weren’t going to let that happen, specifically volleyball coach Tarina Elliott, who devised a plan to introduce Salgado Lindo to college coaches.
They started by recording highlight videos of Salgado Lindo training and sending the footage to colleges. Given that Salgado Lindo had already graduated, the effort illustrates school officials’ dedication in advocating for their students.
“I lost a lot of hope, but they always say, ‘Never give up,’ so I never gave up,” Salgado Lindo said. “I just started working. ... I knew eventually something was going to happen.”
Salgado Lindo admitted to being a troublemaker early in high school.
“The kid had a mouth,” Smith said. “We work in the business of kids, and we understand that, and at Valley we understand. We try to figure out why.”
And figuring it out with this student translated into finding an activity to complement his studies. Some students find their niche in social clubs or through the arts. For Salgado Lindo, it was spring sports.
“You need to redirect this anger somewhere else, into something positive,” Smith remembers telling a younger Salgado Lindo. “And he did, he definitely did that.”
Salgado Lindo didn’t pick up volleyball until his freshman year, partially because he had hoped for a spot on the Vikings basketball team but didn’t make the cut.
His mother, Isabel Salgado Lindo, who describes him as a great son who likes to mentor his 12-year-old brother, encouraged him to pick the sport she played in school.
He did and quickly fell in love with it. And he became very good at it, too.
“As a volleyball player ... he’s intense. He doesn’t quit,” Smith said. “He’s hard on himself. He has all the tools.”
The change in maturity came during his junior year, said Smith, who first noticed it when the teen advocated for another student who was in distress.
He’s “accountable” and understands that “he has a lot of power, and he has a lot of control of what he can do,” Smith said.
Things only continued to improve when Elliott became his volleyball coach in the beginning of his senior year.
She remembers meeting a dedicated player who, like most teens, had some self-doubt about his abilities. Athlete and coach quickly connected, though, and Salgado Lindo told her his dream of playing collegiate volleyball.
“If you have a player who truly wants it and wants to go to the next level, as coaches we’re not the person to judge whether they’re good enough or not,” Elliott said. “It’s our job to get them there.”
He expressed a desire to understand the game in a more methodological manner before competing in college, and he’s proven to be a quick study, Elliott said.
In volleyball, it’s one thing to be able to hit hard, she said. “He can see the court.”
He became a team leader — versatile, good at offense, defense, passing and his positions as a main setter and main hitter.
He was poised to have a great season. “Once COVID came, that just ruined the whole thing for me,” Salgado Lindo said.
Going to college is a whole other monster. Salgado Lindo, who will live in the dorms, will have to eat, sleep and breathe school and volleyball.
His family and his future in the sport “made me think of being more mature,” he said. “They probably would just kick me out and bring me back to Vegas” otherwise, he joked.
In the coming days, his coach and her daughter, who is also a volleyball player at Valley, will accompany him in the 1,200-mile drive to Salina, Kan.
Smith said Valley will continue to track his progress, and it’ll be there in case he needs help or just a care package.
Once the pandemic is tamed, his family hopes to visit and see him play again.
Isabel Salgado Lindo recalls how disappointed he was this spring, when he thought his volleyball days were over.
“God’s timing is perfect,” she told him. “If this is meant for you, it will arrive.”
When he received a message from Kansas saying he was in, he called his mother, excitedly.
“Mami,” he told her. “Remember when you would tell me …”
