Life growing up with a future college athlete as a brother

Some older siblings can’t wait to have younger siblings to play with, but I was very much enjoying being an only child. As a three-year-old, I was not excited about this baby coming into the family. Ever since my brother was born, he had some sort of ball in his hand. Always throwing it at something or someone. At the age of 3, my brother went to a baseball camp. They were setting balls on the tee and my brother hit the ball so hard that it smashed a tv mounted on the wall. That was the moment my family knew something was special about his skills.

I have definitely always been a daddy’s girl, ready to snuggle up on the couch and watch the game. I might not have gotten the athleticism but the love for sports was always there. It was my family time even before my brother started playing baseball. The time where everyone sat down together invested in the same goal. I went from watching games on the couch to watching games from the sidelines cheering on my favorite player, my brother.

His love for baseball started as a hobby. Just a bunch of kids playing with grass and running the wrong way. My brother was always focused on the field ready to make the play. It soon became a travel team which only traveled within an hour to different teams in the area. Next, it was weekend tournaments in nearby states. Before you blinked, it was week-long tournaments a few states away with hundreds of teams all competing to be the single winner.  If you have ever been involved in travel sports, you have also seen how quickly everything escalated from year to year. For those of you thinking about how restful the off season was I unfortunately will have to disappoint you because there wasn’t really an end to the baseball season. My brother played travel fall ball that went into November. Took a break from actual games in the winter where he focused on weight training and conditioning for the spring season. Played the entire spring season and once the spring season was done, it was time for summer ball. 

If that doesn’t sound exhausting enough, the real kicker was when the college recruiting process started. Tons of high school athletes, all competing for a spot on the roster of a division 1 school. So, while you're doing all these tournaments, you also have to find time to visit baseball camps at specific schools, make highlight real videos of your performance, have phone calls with different coaches who are interested, and be a student in school. The pressure to do well was overwhelming for everyone involved because all we wanted to do was watch my brother achieve his dreams. And he did, after years of watching him work hard, something that was once a little boy's hobby became a reality. 

I was in college at the time he got the call that he was offered a position to play baseball for Penn State. I was his first call! Unfortunately, I had my phone on do not disturb while trying to get a bunch of homework done so I ended up being one of the last people to find out. I will never forget the excitement in his voice as he told me the amazing news. Everything he had worked so hard for was coming true. It is a moment my family and I will never forget! 

Most of the time when people think of travel sports they think about how a family is always running in different directions and never all together. While this is the case for lots of families, this was not my experience. Travel baseball brought my family together. Every Friday was an opportunity to sit in the car together, usually for a long time, and have conversations about our week. Every weekend might have been chaotic but my family was in the same place. Oftentimes my grandparents and other family members would come to see my brother play. No matter what was going on with the world around us, baseball was able to bring my family together! 

Being a part of the sports community has taught me many things. Sports isn’t all about winning even if those long silent car rides home after a big loss might have something different to say. Family isn’t just blood but the people who help you walk through your life on the good days and the bad ones. Teamwork always creates a better outcome than people thinking they can do it by themselves. Everyone has a story to tell and reason for why they are playing the game. Baseball wasn’t just a sport for me but an opportunity to learn and grow as a person. 

While I might not have been on the field, I was always cheering him on in the stands. Even though I can no longer make it to every game, I will always be his biggest fan. To all the athletes out there, thank you for playing the sport you love and sharing your love for the game with us!