Personal Statement
Several key moments throughout my life have helped shape who I am today. When I was in 2nd grade, my grandma died from breast cancer. I was very close with my grandmother and enjoyed spending time with her. Since she passed away, I have always played for her every game. I think of her when I step on the mound and write her initials in the mound dirt before the 1st inning every time I go out to pitch. I give my all for her as I feel like she is watching me. Dealing with my grandmother’s death, made me value my family even more. I enjoy sharing my baseball successes and even my failures with them. They support me either way.
Another experience that influenced how I handle myself on the mound, during my freshman season, I gave up a two run double in the top of the 7th inning which ended up costing our team the game. I didn’t handle that loss well. My coach helped me to understand how to learn from losses. It helped prepare me for the road ahead and I learned how to better deal with failure. When I was younger I played many sports but eventually narrowed it down to my biggest passion - baseball, although I do still love playing basketball and soccer for fun. My favorite MLB team is the Cubs, and has been since way before they won the world series. I loved watching Alfonso Soriano hit home runs and watching games on TV made me even more interested in baseball.
I have learned that I am resilient, determined and tough through baseball. I work just as hard on the field as off it. My academic goals are to get straight As through high school and college. In baseball, I’ve had a few obstacles to overcome. One challenge was not letting my emotions take over on the mound. I can now focus on each pitch and not let one hit, or missed pitch affect me. Also, although I am tall, I was never really that strong. I have worked hard over the last few seasons to gain weight, get stronger and throw harder than ever. I’ve never overpowered hitters with my pitch speed but I have worked hard on pitch control and pitch placement which gets me outs. I don’t walk many batters and when batters do get on, I have good moves to control the baserunners. I’m not the most vocal player on the field, in fact I try to keep my cool under pressure and lead my teammates by example.
