Freshman Year: Doing Baseball In High School

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Freshman Year- The month was February. I had just got done signing my name on Coach Wondo’s door to solidify the fact that I would be doing baseball in high school. Baseball was definitely in my top two for sports that I most liked, and coming off two state championships and a runner up for grade school baseball meant I was as enthusiastic as ever. I was short for my age, 5’3” to be exact, but I was quick as heck and could play centerfield like a champ. The only problem was the fact that, at the time, my favorite sport was track. Sadly, track in high school is during the same season as baseball. Literally the night before baseball tryouts were going to be held, I changed my mind about doing baseball in high school, and instead chose to join the track team. Coach Brentlinger had …show more content…
My decision to pursue track instead of baseball made my dad angry, since he always wanted a son to play high school baseball. Nevertheless, I knew in the long run I would be a great track athlete (pun intended). My sisters were both successful at track and it was only a matter of time until I developed into a young adult, so I thought why not give it a try. Coach Brentlinger wanted me to try out an event I was completely unfamiliar with at the time, pole vaulting, and also wanted me to do it in less than two days. I was no brainiac freshman year, but I could tell pole vaulting was not a sport that somebody could pick up in two days, especially if I wasn’t even going to practice it in those two days. The only thing I did to prepare for my first meet was drive a small pole into the side of the secondary gym’s wall. That’s it… and I did that about 5 times. When the meet, at Illinois College, rolled around I had no understanding of the fundamentals pole vaulting required, and had a pole that was way too big for my size at the time. I know today that when an inexperienced jumper first starts to learn pole vaulting, the pole should be nice and small so the vaulter can actually