West Cocoa Chat

I wanted to do a post concerning Steven’s tenure playing High School Baseball now that it has come to an end. I know, for many this will be like watching some of those dreaded “summer vacation videos” or being invited over to someone’s home so they can show you the wonderful world of (my apologies to any reps out there) “Amway.” So, no hard sell here and feel free to move on. I’m not going to make this a blow by blow (looks like I lied since I’m splitting this up into 2 parts) account, I think? You never know with me and my passion to digress and chase the proverbial rabbit.

Steven’s freshman year was short and sweet. Short in that the J.V. season only scheduled 11 games that year and a couple of them were rained out and not made up. Disappointing to say the least.

The “sweet” part was the promised he showed in combined practices. Time and time again he hit “varsity pitching” in practice. I still have an image in my mind of the hitting coach riding out in a golf cart to Steven in left-field and giving him a high-five for his effort at the plate. Although he didn’t make the Varsity that year we were sure he had a bright future.

Then the “change” happened. I would liken it to a change in the eldership soon after a new preacher arrives and if any of you have been in that situation before, you have my sympathy. Our “veteran” coach retired from coaching and a new, young guy took over. The veteran coaching staff left and was replaced by mostly community coaches. One of them in particular had given Steven a bad taste in his mouth during his freshman year when he played football and in fact, turned him off to the sport.

Still, things seem to be going well. I still remember riding up to the field and seeing Steven flash a “V” for Varsity sign to me during that practice. The season started out with Steven actually starting at third-base of all places. In one of our early games he got a timely hit against the new Coach’s old school, Satellite H.S. that ended up winning the game. Still, something happened and his playing time diminished and for the first time since he started playing baseball at age 4, league age 5, his confidence began to wane.

His junior started with the same kind of promise and playing time only to again, be relegated to sporadic playing time. This time he showed even more promise, hitting his very first homerun against Eau Gallie, coming in to pitch a couple of innings of no-hit ball, and then only to see this playing time diminished.

The season ended with the coach being let go and of all things, Steven coming to his defense. You can’t put a price on that kind of loyalty. That to me was the highlight of his junior season.

Then the summer came and a meeting was held at the High School Cafeteria. The search was on for a new Coach. Many of us were hoping that the Athletic Director, the Varsity Coach Steven’s freshman year, would come back to coach. He assured us that who he had in mind, if he would accept the job, would be someone that we would all be pleased with. Boy, now looking on that statement in retrospect, that was a huge understatement.

I will say that the hours of prayers and concerns on our part for Steven were more than answered! The next post – Coach Arnold and Steven’s senior year.

First – an obligatory blog disclaimer – This post may sound a bit whiny at times (that would be this particular’s day’s post – I know you guys don’t view the E-word author as being a whiner – do you?) and if it does, my apologies. Many of you face so much more than what I’ll express

No Steve-o here. I took this picture of the underclassman as they formed the line that we walked through as we escorted Steven on Senior Night. It was good that I was wearing dark sunglasses because looking at these boys made me choke up. That was until Steven started giving all of them the “Queen Elizabeth wave” as we walked through the line.

Here we are at Senior Night. From left to right: Steven’s Grandma, Grandpa, Steven, Barb, E-word guy, Coach Arnold, Ast. Principal, Mr. and Mrs. Holloway, their twin sons, Ryan, Devin.

The 4 Seniors – Stuart who didn’t dress for the game, Devin, Steven, and Ryan.

How about this for a game face? Steven at the Pre-game Conference with Coach Arnold.

Steven hitting at Palm Bay in his last away game. The next few pictures you may have to click on (if you can) and zoom in.

Steven playing second base with Josh (Big Country) Woods at first and Tyler (T.A.) Anderson at Short.

Steven on second base after an RBI single and moving up on the throw. Our first-base Coach, Coach Frifth, in the foreground. His favorite baseball mantra using his best Hispanic accent, “Hit dee ball.”

The “best” picture I have of Coach Gofarb talking to Steven and Sky (yes, his real name) during a time out. They are standing by the fence. Sky was on third and Steven was on second.
Steven being congratulated on his RBI single as well as scoring a run, with a high five from Coach.

The lapse in posts is largely due to the warp-speed pace of our schedule these past few days. Steven’s school is one of those “lucky” schools that forces their seniors to do a “Senior Project” as a requirement for Graduation. The pace has been hectic around our home but it all came together last night. Steven will be presenting his project formally tomorrow.

We started the District Tournament by winning our first game 9 to 5. Steven went O for 2 but he had 2 Sacrifice Flies driving in 2 runs in the effort. He also made one of those (cue the theme from ESPN’s Sportscenter) “Second-baseman fielding the ball hit up the middle / behind second-base / jumping and throwing the ball going away from first / robbing the hitter of a single” plays that was electrifying. We play Merritt Island at 4 today and if we win we’ll face the winner of the Rockledge vs. Titusville game in the Championship tomorrow. This would guarantee us another game as both 1^st and 2^nd place advance to Regional’s. Of course we’re still in one and done world so if we lose today then it will be the end of Steven’s H.S. career.

I’ll have the “call” of today’s game and speaking of having the call, have you ever been “blasted” on the radio as you’re listening to it? That was my experience yesterday. After I announced the 4:00 game I left the field as my good friend Tom had the call of the 7pm game. I had to pick something up for Steven’s Project so I headed out for I-95. I decided to listen in on the second game as our local ESPN Radio Station was broadcasting it.

I’ve known the Broadcast (Greg does too – remember Steve Wilson, Greg?) Team for years going back to Steven’s earliest t-ball days. As I’m heading south on I-95 (or as you Californians call it – “The 95”) with the radio on, I heard one of the announcers say, “Looks like Cecil Walker has the Scoreboard wrong. The count is 3 balls / no strikes, not 2 balls and no strikes as the Scoreboard is showing.”

Wow family – I’ve been un-invited from Bible Camp, had my name de-famed by local preachers using parts of my blog as slander against me, and I’ve even had to take out the trash a time or two but having your “good announcing reputation” slammed by the local ESPN Station while your miles away from “THE SCOREBOARD” was almost too much to bare! I found myself (not screaming) raising my voice at my car radio at 70-something miles per hour saying, “I’m not at the field, its Tom not Cecil.”

So there you have it – perhaps as Steven comes to the end of his career (hopefully in a couple of weeks) and my “blog (as Randy would say) cash cow” ends with him, perhaps my new blog cash cow will be THE SCOREBOARD!

Have a great day family and wish Steve-o luck in today’s game.

In all my years of coaching and being with Steven since he was 5 years (league age 6) old, I can’t believe we’re coming down to our last week of High School Baseball. We have our last “regular season” away game tomorrow (Monday) down in Greg’s favorite town of Palm Bay.

Sidebar – When Steven was 10 Greg and his family had the misfortune of visiting us during All Stars which was being held in Palm Bay. Palm Bay can be a 30 to 60 minute drive depending on traffic and that particular All Star Season, we made the trip numerous times due to scheduled All Star games and unscheduled rain. Copious amounts of rain I might add.

Our last 2 regular season games are at home with “Senior Night” being our last game on Thursday. If you care to join us at Senior Night I’ll be the guy wearing dark glasses since I’ll probably be balling my eyes out. Our Senior Night usually consists of each family escorting their son unto the field while a dossier is being read over the P.A. I knew this time was coming but it will be surreal nonetheless as I hear my “Senior Son’s” bio being read out loud.

So I may be a bit melancholy this week so please forgive and bear with me. We are hosting the District Tournament the following week and I oh so pray that we finish in 1^st or 2^nd so I can see Steven play in one more high school game.

In preparation for this exciting time Barb was sick all night long, Friday night and I had insomnia last night, not going to bed until 2am. I wonder if this is the start of a mid-life crisis? What do you think, should I get a hair (that would be on top of my head) transplant?

I’ll leave with an unrelated question. I was asked to update our Church (www.cocoachurch.org) website with respect to our history. Apparently it ends at 1997 and our church as undergone some tremendous changes since then. I plan on sharing with you, the home viewer, what I wrote once my fellow (for you Randy) “E-Word’s” finish with their critiques of it. Here’s my question:

If you could write about your church’s recent history, how honest or open would you be?

Happy Monday.

Our head coach is a former All-American Pitcher for UCF. Because of his connections we were able to play our game with West Orange High (Class 6A - ranked 2nd in the State) at Jay Bergman Field at the University of Central Florida. Although we came up on the short end of a 7 to 3 score, Steven played well going 3 for 4 with 2 doubles. Since my last post his line totals look like:
1. 2 for 3 - 2 homeruns
2. 1 for 3 - Sacrifice fly and a RBI single.
3. 2 for 4 - RBI single and a RBI double.
4. 3 for 4 tonight with 2 doubles and a single.

That's about a .571 clip for the last 4 games. To say that it was pleasure watching Steven playing on a Division 1 field and performing at the level he's performing would be an understatement. The serendipty of the night was when Coach Arnold asked me to announce the game.

Yes, so there I was in the "air-conditioned" Pressbox of Jay Bergman Field. A pressbox with 2 levels, flat screen computer monitors, and the biggest mic I've ever seen annoucing our game. To be able to say over speakers that someone told me as they were driving up they could hear from 2 miles away, "Second straight double by the Second Baseman, Steven Walker," was indeed priceless.

Our prayers now are that someone notices Steven and offers him a scholarship. Keep the boy in your prayers. It's been quite a ride.