West Cocoa Chat

What a whirlwind these last few hours have been for our family. One caveat - In the grand scheme of life, making Varsity or J.V. Baseball pales in comparison with most of the “curve balls” life can throw your way. But when one of these curveballs hits your child, it seems like the world has momentarily come to an end.

To fill in more detail from Tuesday, Steven was in the batting cage the day on Tuesday with some other players as the rest of the team were hitting on the field. Steven asked an Assistant Coach when he should report to the field to hit live pitching? The coach fired back, “You J.V. players need to learn your place. You’ll wait until the Varsity is done.” Steven replied, “J.V.?” The coach said, “That’s right “S.Walk.” (his given nickname on the diamond) You remember how it was on the J.V. last year.”

It was this gruff announcement that rocked my son’s world on Tuesday.
You know how we reacted from Tuesday’s blog. I appreciated your comments and your prayers on behalf of Steven.

All day long I was praying to God to give Steven something that would encourage him today (Wednesday). As you all know, our God is a God of “extremes” when it comes to our prayers. Sometimes that’s a good thing and other times it doesn’t seem to be very favorable, at least from our frail human perspective.

After being in almost continual (probably the standard state of most teacherss) prayer yesterday, I left for the field to catch the last part of practice. As I drove up to the field, I saw Steven playing third base with what I would consider the “other varsity” players. When Steven saw me he tried to signal something to me but I’m terrible at reading lips! Then he flashed me a huge smile and made the “V” sign with his fingers. That’s right, THE BOY MADE VARSITY!!!!

To say that we were happy would be an understatement. I asked him about Tuesday’s events and here’s what he told me:

He said the Ast. Coach was in a bad mood that day. Duh! He was in such a bad mood that he mixed up the hitting rotation. When Steven saw the Head Varsity Coach yesterday, he said, “S.Walk, we screwed up the hitting rotation with the Varsity players. Sorry about that. We’ll make sure you hit on the field with the Varsity today.” Steven said, “Varsity! Coach, I made the Varsity?” The coach said, “Sure, didn’t you know that?” Steven told him he was happy but that Coach Rottan had ruined his day yesterday. The coach’s response was classic, he said, “My bad.”

“My bad?” “My bad” lasted for about 12 hours from Tuesday through yesterday! But praise God our boy who has been playing baseball since he was 4 years old made the Cocoa High Baseball Team as a sophomore!
You know what Steven did to make me really proud? Several things:

1. He told me most of his hurt feelings from yesterday were due to the fact that the Ast. Coach had hurt the feelings of not just him, but several of the boys. He said, “Dad, I don’t want to play on the J.V. but if I have to, so be it. But that wasn’t any way to treat my friends and me when we’ve been paying the price since September.” Steven has always had great empathy for others.

2. He woke up on Wednesday in a good mood and told me he knew this was all in God’s hands. Keep teaching me my son.

3. He was sad for his 2 friends, Devin and Ryan that didn’t make varsity. Say a prayer for those boys.

4. Ryan was back in church tonight, hanging out with Steven. Steven's celebration was tempered by his sensitivity to Ryan.

Thanks again family. Praise God!