Baseball is not just about winning a game. The amount of practice, conditioning, mental blocks and the stress affects your outcome. Baseball is all about failing to succeed, and that failure being your motivation to try harder.
“Off the field we really try to incorporate mental practices into baseball,” said head baseball coach Gregory Wrape. “On the field we try to jampack practices with doing a lot of skill work to make practices as useful as possible.”
Starting out from a very young age is a very transformative experience. For most players that means starting out at around three to five years old. Beginning young lets you get the feel of experiencing teamwork, hand-eye coordination, and discipline. While scores are not being kept, it still gives young players an activity to get excited about and a chance to build friendships, learn perseverance, and experience a little competition.
“When I started playing in older groups it made me strive to put more effort and work into baseball,” said freshman Grayson Dees. “It helped me mature a lot and have better communication”
People are your main source of motivation. For most players it’s their dad, grandparent or even siblings. Whether it’s from them attending every game, the camaraderie and support of your teammates who share your same goals, or even the guidance from the coaches who know your potential. The community that you have around you makes athletes strive and go above and beyond to reach their goals.
“My biggest motivation is my grandad and my little brother,” said junior Jaden Gore. “My little brother especially encourages me to keep going.”
Baseball not only impacts you physically but mentally. Once you step foot on that diamond, you are a role model. You have to uphold the expectations of players, coaches and mentors. You also have to balance school while playing baseball and make sure you’re keeping up a good reputation.
“I always looked up to high school baseball players when I was younger,” said senior Austin Inman. “Baseball gave me something to look forward to and not get caught up in trouble.”
Failure and overthinking play a crucial role in baseball. When it comes to tryouts or games you always doubt yourself whether you are performing at the expected level. Embracing your failure though gives you a learning opportunity rather than a setback. The biggest thing is believing in yourself and pushing yourself past those limits into the outfield.
“The overthinking of tryouts gets to my head sometimes,” said Dees. “However I don’t let that stop me from still giving it my all.”
Your career in baseball doesn’t end in highschool. Going pro requires a lot of dedication, talent, and perseverance. Players have that desire, they often use the dream of going pro as their drive to excel. Having good communication with coaches from baseball programs and really getting yourself out there helps your chances.
“Going pro has always been my dream,” said senior Garrett Powell. “I just have to take it one step at a time and see where it goes from there.”
Wanting to quit is known as taking the easy way out. Giving up is pointless. Every challenge you face on that field is an opportunity to improve yourself as a player and a person. When you overcome your obstacles you automatically boost your self confidence. Plus the friendships and memories you make along the way with your teammates are irreplaceable. By not quitting, you use the experience and benefits to see how far they can take you, in your baseball career.
“You know I have thought about quitting, but baseball is a game of failure,” said Powell. “So I just learned to go with the hard things that come and just take those hardships and use them to my advantage.”
