Time to Say Good Bye

As a coach, it was the hardest thing to do, say Good Bye. Every year, seniors will graduate and leave your program. Some players, are tougher to say good bye than others, but none are easy. Most of these players have become your family. You have seen them grow into young men and better baseball players. You laugh at banquets at how little they were freshman year or at how squirly they were at a young age. But it is never fun to say good bye. A lot of tears, are shed on bus rides back to school or in locker rooms. You as the coach know what is in store for your players as they move on to the real world. You want to tell them how special playing for a high school is, but you don't. You don't because you know they will not understand until it is no longer there. Team sports create such a special bond between players and coaches. 

This being my first year away from coaching, it is actually tougher to see kids graduate. I do not get to know the kids as well doing this as I did coaching, but I get to know more. In every elimination game I have seen in this state tournament, I have had to watch a kid I know lose his final game. It sucks. No other way to put it. Every team has left the state tournament earlier than they anticipated. Kids consoling kids, kids crying through a meaningless hand shake. It makes you think back to a happy moment of them. So to the class of 2012, Good Luck in your future endeavors. Remember the moments that were your high school career. As you head into college, you will look back in 3-4 months and miss high school baseball. You will miss the teammates, the bus rides, but most importantly how pure high school baseball is. There are only 16 teams left in the tournament and 12 will experience the "good bye" moment. Which means we will say good bye to another 75-100 players in the 2012 class. 

To you 2012 Class Congrats on your Graduations, Congrats on your HS careers. Best of Luck