Dear 12-year-old Zay,
Your journey is not going to be easy. It is going to be filled with obstacles and situations that you will not understand.
You are starting to realize you are athletically gifted and play every sport well. You are advanced for your age.
You decide to start playing baseball and sign up for the local pony league.
You just played your first ever baseball game. It was not good, and you were convinced that you were going to quit.
Uncle Mokey came up to you after the game to take you home and you were crying.
You said to him, “I don’t want to play this anymore.”
He told you, “So you are just going to give up that easy? You are gifted Isaiah at least give it a shot before you want to quit.”
Little does Mokey know that that moment right there lit a fire within you.
From that moment on you spend every day out in the backyard for hours trying to throw ten throws in a row to Mokey’s chest. If you did not you had to restart. Some days you would get frustrated because you would be out there for so long. Some days you were out there for 10 minutes.
You start to get better and better and become one of the better players in the league.
You decide to pursue baseball more. You try out for a select team called Eastside select. You end up making the team and you continually get looked past. The coach’s son plays your position, and you were better.
You get frustrated with yourself and lose confidence. You played for eastside select for a couple of years as played all over. The next season is coming around and you got cut because your mom got into a verbal argument with the coach’s wife about why his son was playing over you.
You are devastated and lose all your confidence. You end up trying out for stod’s select and make the team. You also started playing little league all-stars that year.
Little do you know that this is your year. You go into the league, and no one really knows who you are. You start to show them who you are by balling out. You made the all-star team that year and your coach had a massive impact on your development as a player.
You became more confident in your abilities and believed in yourself because you found someone that believed in you.
You led your all-star team to its first district championship in 20 years. You went to the state tournament and took 4th.
You started taking baseball way more seriously. You narrowed your sports down to football and baseball.
You made a key decision for your future and instead of going to your local high school you enrolled at O’Dea.
Your first year you made the varsity roster. You got to see the O’Dea way and how things are done here.
You start thinking to yourself, “Get your school paid for.”
That phrase became a steppingstone for you.
Your sophomore year started on varsity but had a down season. Your confidence this season was low.
You were in your head. You had a summer season and got things back in check. You grinded in the weightroom and cages and trained daily.
You came back the next season and started every game this season and got all the league. You led your team to a regional championship and state 3rd place. You spend the summer hungry and grinding. You are in the weight room and training more than you ever have.
You spend the fall doing the same. Every day for hours you were in the cages and weightroom.
You do everything because you want to, get your school paid for.
You start talking to coaches seriously and gaining a lot of interest.
Now you are waiting for the upcoming season, ready to hang a banner and are looking forward to your future in this sport.
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