With Major League Baseball winding down their season, the college baseball season is just getting started up. Every NCAA baseball team is allowed to practice for a 4 week period in the fall to prepare for the regular season in the spring. Right now the Spalding baseball team is entering their final week of the fall season and just finished up a wonderful weekend simply known as “Get Acquainted Day”. “We started this day so that all the new families could be welcomed in by the returning families,” Head Coach Mike Stawski states. “It’s a great chance to get everyone together right at the beginning of the school year so that we can talk about the upcoming season and the events the team has going on through the winter. However, the main reason we have this day is so that all the parents can meet and get to know each other.”
Coach Stawski and his staff has instilled a family atmosphere around the program. They hope to get as many families involved in their son’s lives as possible and that was evident this past Saturday. The team played a simple intersquad scrimmage like they do every Saturday, only this time over 150 friends and families of the players were in attendance to meet and greet the team. “It was a great day, “ Head Assistant Coach Ryan Shockley stated. “The guys enjoy it because they have everyone here to see them and the parents obviously enjoy it because they get to see their son’s play, some of them for the first time at the collegiate level. It was really a great turnout.”
Maybe the most impressive part of the day is the distance some families traveled to attend this event. The team is comprised of players from all over the Midwest including Chicago, St. Louis, Indianapolis, and Cincinnati. In all the team has 14 players that live at least 2 hours away. Even with the distance, every player had someone there to represent them. “It just goes to show you the commitment level that our parents have on this team,” Stawski commented. “We have worked hard to create a family here in Spalding Baseball and the only reason we have been able to do so is because of the parents of the players. They have been the ones to create that atmosphere and that makes the staff pretty happy.”
The team is coming off of its most successful season in 4 years where they won 20 games and finished 12th in the USCAA National Poll. The team has one week left of practice before they get a week off and then start their off season programs. Please visit the website for more details on the baseball team.
Tags: Men's Baseball, Men's Sports by jwurth
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