A Week and Counting
By Jake Naas
IV Leader Sports Writer
Editor’s Note: This is the second in a season-long look at life from inside the IVCC baseball team as IV Leader Sports Writer Jake Naas discusses life on the team.
As I sit at my computer, I look at two things. The weather
forecast and the just released preseason baseball rankings from the NJCAA.
Neither are very good news.
With weather that doesn’t bring much relief from the cold, I
wonder if we will be able to play our first games on the Feb. 18 and 19 against
Oakton Community College at SIU-Edwardsville.
And with the preseason rankings, I wonder how we will fare in
our schedule this year. With four ranked teams on our schedule, and other ranked
teams that are in our region, it will definitely be an uphill battle for most of
the schedule.
Although difficult, it will be interesting to get a few games
under our belt as a measuring stick to see how we will fare.
As Major League Baseball waits patiently for pitchers and
catchers to report to their respected spring training sites, we will hopefully
have a few games under our belts before they even arrive, even without the
comfort of the southern warmth.
The gym has been the baseball team’s best friend for the last
month. Although it has been good for the team to work on fundamentals and
essentials, I think I speak for the whole team when I say I am sick of
practicing inside. Baseball is definitely not a sport to be played within a
100-foot gym. The repetition of practices is getting old and it seems like the
same things over and over.
Even though we want to go outside, I am sure that the cold would for sure drive
us back in, but for our first few games we may not have a choice. If we do play
these games, it will be a fun weekend as we will get to see current SIU-E and
former IVCC players Jim Grant and Aaron Sester. So even in the cold, the weekend
will be a great experience for us.
The measuring stick I was talking about earlier will most
likely come from the trip to Cocoa Beach, Florida. Most of us on the team have
been dreaming of the beach and escape from the tundra of the Illinois Valley
during our spring break, but the eight games against teams we won’t play during
the regular year will be great for placing us in positions and getting ready for
the regular season.
As the team continues to prepare, we are looking forward to
get out of this stagnant period of practice. We are looking forward to the start
of games and finally seeing the fruits of our labor.
It will also make the spring semester cruise by and before
you know it, it will be playoff time.
So although we can’t wait, it is time to savor the flavor
because we will soon realize that baseball will be over for yet another spring
before we know it.