Last week, Jacob’s first traveling baseball season came to an end at the league championship game. Unfortunately, the boys lost but it did not detract from a super season. The 12 boys started practicing in April, and while none of them had been through a traveling season, they managed an overall record of 29-13-1. That’s an impressive record.
The season had many highlights, but for me the best one came in June, when the boys completed a perfect weekend and won the Farmington tournament. This happened in the midst of a 10 game winning streak, and enabled berths in two state tournaments. 
As an assistant coach, I had the pleasure of watching these kids grow from a skills perspective, a baseball IQ perspective and overall maturity as young men. There were some that could not throw the ball from second base to first, but now can make that play routinely. There were some who were afraid of getting hit by the ball, but now can hit inside pitches. Playing 43 games and practicing more on top of that made the difference.
When I think of my own son, I think the biggest thing he got was the love for the game. He was mostly sad last week about being done with the season. He has decided to play on a fall team because he loves to play.
