Well - you may have noticed I haven't been writing as much lately. It's not due to boredom or a lack of things to say. Simply this is the "busy" time of the year for me. And right now I could not be happier with how things are going. I am referring to our baseball team. This time of year I am an assistant coach on a 17U (Jr. American Legion) baseball team. I've been coaching for a long time. I have seen a lot. This team we have this year has the chance to do some special things. We are a young team (two 8th graders). We are not physically big. We have no superstar. BUT - we have 15 players (from 5 high schools) that have come together because they love the game and aspire to grow and learn from it. Oh and they want to become better baseball players in the process and hopefully move on to our Senior division and into college. This group has "it" I call it. And it's really hard to describe "it". Heart, grit, determination, confidence, humility... all of these words apply. The thing about "it" is that as coaches we can't teach it. You either have it as an individual or you don't. You either have it as a team or you don't. This team has "it". This group can accomplish anything they want. As coaches we are there to steer them, teach them, and put them in position to succeed. We are not perfect. Coaches or players. We have MUCH to learn and improve upon. But with this group having what we cannot teach - we can teach them the game. And we can teach them to be awesome young men. Teach them what it means to be a part of something larger than oneself. Life skills. THIS is why I love the game of baseball. It's an awesome responsibility and a privilege at the same time to be able to work with young men like this year after year.
We are off to a quick start at 7-1. Wins don't equate success necessarily. Sometimes wins and success do go hand in hand. We ran the table (4-0) at our Memorial Day Tournament and won the Championship game for the 1st time in our history. Since we have had 4 conference games. Friday night we dominated in 2 games against a division opponent. Today we split 1-1 against a very tough opponent (our main conference rival) in 2 VERY wild games. We had an 11-10 walk off loss in game 1. In game 2 we came from behind (we were in a 5-0 hole early) to win in extra (9) innings 9-5. Today we showed we are a "young" team. After that tough game 1 loss we played like a young team starting game 2. But once we got going there was no stopping these boys. I'll spare you the baseball highlights - if you like to hear highlights our team can be followed on Facebook (Sykesville Post 223 American Legion Baseball). What I want to really say about these games is that our boys are something special this year. We are only getting started but I am as excited as I've ever been to go through a season. We are truly a family (15 players and 5 coaches). It's pretty daggone cool. I even received a set of (fake) kangaroo balls from one of my fellow coaches today as a good luck charm (he was recently in Australia). I'll save our dugout culture for another time! Thank you for reading and allowing me to run on about something I truly love in my life.
