Austin Rieman '16 Recruiting Profile

This experience changed my whole entire outlook on life. Knowing that my best friend was in pain killed me on the inside. The tears, the sobbing, the awaken memories of the past took a huge toll on both of us. The death of his father torchured us loved ones. The cause; pancreatic cancer.

A few months later Mr. Peddicord started showing up to our games and practices in a wheelchair, looking skinnier than a teenage girl. I knew the cancer was taking over his body by his physical and emotional appearance. Our time was limited with him and everyone of his loved ones knew it. From this point on I was playing the game of football for this man.

It wasn’t until the day of Mr. Peddicord’s memorial that I realized so much about life. I needed to take advantage of the opportunities I have in life like getting into college or potentially getting the chance to play college baseball. Cherishing family and the ones I love stood out to me the most. Playing travel baseball gave me exposure to a higher level of competition in baseball and exposed me to college coaches. Going to college camps all over California also exposed me to the college baseball experience, working hard on the field during games, during practice and extra work after practice made me realize that I can compete at the next level of baseball. The only thing that is going to stop me is myself. Contacting coaches helps me get a lot of exposure as well. Emailing coaches constantly to hopefully get a college baseball scholarship and constantly bothering coaches to get them to notice me helps me get exposure as well. Every time my name pops up they will notice who I am and hopefully become more interested in recruiting me. Now, family was never a problem when it came to cherishing them. I love my family and would do anything for them. My sister just had a baby, so I help her out by babysitting for her whenever she needs it. I also spend a lot more time with my parents, whether that's just hanging out at home or going out in public with them. I also try spending as much time as I can with my grandparents. I spend a week trip with my grandpa in Arizona for a baseball tournament and we had the time of our lives. Having great conversations about life on the way there, cracking jokes, along with having talks about the game we both love very much, baseball. To help myself get to where I want to be, I spend a lot of time on getting my academic classes up to where I need them to be. I do this by going to my teachers after school for extra help so that I can get the grades I want. I also do study groups with friends so that I prepare myself for upcoming tests. I also take challenging classes such as AP statistics to prepare myself for college and challenge my abilities