The Boys of Spring
By Jake Naas
IV Leader Sports Writer
Editor’s Note: This is first the of a new series looking at life
from inside the IVCC Eagles men’s baseball team. From the beginning of winter
practice in January, to our spring break trip to Florida in March and all the
way to the playoffs in May, we will take you along for the ride.
As the winter two a days began with the beginning of class,
it has been quite a tough grind on all of the players.
Practice at 5:30 a.m. brings a new dimension of sleep depravation for a college
student. Then classes after morning practice only to return to evening practice
at 5:30 at night. Sickness and fatigue often set in.
People often ask why we would subject ourselves to this, and
asking many of the players on the team, you would get a myriad of answers.
From Daniel Thomson and Luke Vine, the answer is the chance
to play baseball while being educated. Both coming from Australia where there is
no baseball along with schooling. This gives them a chance to do both at the
same time.
For area players such as myself, Aaron Tondi, Doug Alleman,
Doug Suarez, Adam Bertrand, Alex Drennan, Chad Holloway and others, it is a
chance to continue to play beyond high school while staying relatively close to
home.
For others coming from outside the area, such as Fabian Gomez
and Erik Mendoza, it is looked at as a mix of reasons for playing, from a
possible professional career to a chance to excel at a four-year institution,
but regardless of the many reasons, I think it boils down to love of playing the
game and the camaraderie of being with the guys.
I feel it is a privilege to be able to play baseball in
college. It is humbling to think that not everybody has the opportunities so
many of us athletes have.
As we drag ourselves out of bed in the morning, we have a few
things to look forward to.
First is our trip to Florida. For most of us, the 85 degrees
of Spring Break in Cocoa Beach, Florida in early March for a week will be enough
to keep getting us out of bed in the morning.
A second thing that we can look forward to is the success’s
that we will hopefully have throughout the year. If we can compete and be
successful to returning the Eagles baseball program to its late 1990’s and early
2000’s glory days, then our hard work will definitely be worth it.
Finally, we are making friendships that will last a
lifetime.
So as we continue to prepare for the upcoming season, we are
growing into a team that will hopefully be a force to reckon with once games
begin to roll in late February. We will continue to work over the next couple
weeks, and as you can imagine, we can’t wait for everything to begin.
An old slogan adopted by ex- coach Bob Koopmann and his
players was: “IV Eagles Baseball-The Best is yet to come.” As the season
progresses hopefully we can be “the best that is yet to come.”