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.

// posted by cwinwc @ 7:09 AM