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The person that influenced me dur..during my leadership journey, I would have to think back to when I started out
at the university and was going to play baseball, but it didn't work out,
and so I ended up transferring to a community college, and at that time...the coach,
he was recruiting me out of high school, and he told me that if I ever wanted to come to the community college
that I was more than welcome to do that. He gave me the pros and the cons of going to the university.
He knew the coaches there. He knew a lot of people there, and he didn't try to hold me back from doing that.
He basically encouraged me to go to do that, and then what happened was, ultimately, it didn't work out,
so I ended up transferring after my first semester, and he accepted me right away.
He didn't have any questions about my decision and just kind of put me into the system that he'd already started.
I was a semester behind everybody else because they started in the Fall and...and were preparing for the upcoming season,
so it was interesting that I started late, and...and he took the time, the effort,
the energy to really work with me on a lot of areas of my game that I needed to work on. I was a center fielder,
and so I had to throw, but my mechanics weren't very good, so he really took it step by step,
broke down what I was doing, video taping it, showing...showing it back to me, and saying, "These are
the things you need to work on." And he was with me the whole way. That was my first...freshman year of college.
During the summer between my freshman and sophomore year, he asked me if I would be the captain
for the upcoming year, so my sophomore year. At first, I was a little reluctant, and he was like, "No.
I want you to be that person." And so, I ended up being the captain my sophomore year, and I worked
in his office. My work study position was in his office, so I got to see what he was doing on a day-to-day basis
as...as a coach of the team and running the program, and one of the jobs he had me do was I had to type up,
on the typewriter on mailing labels, every college in the country that had baseball, so my work study job was to that.
Now this was when you actually had to physically type it, so I typed it up, and what he did at the end of the season,
he would put the profiles of all of us that were getting ready to transfer. All the information,
he sent it to every college in the country, and that's how I got my scholarship, was based upon that initial contact,
and then he also had a lot of contact with the scouts in the area, so they got information about who I was,
based upon never seeing me before. I got a...a full scholarship to continue playing baseball,
and I think a lot of that had to do with my coach and the time and effort he took to mentor me, to help me,
to...to show me...how to do it. My mom told me earlier on, "Never burn any bridges." And...and when he
was recruiting me in high school, you know I thought there was no way I was going to a community college,
but I always was respectful to him, and I think because of that, when I came back to him,
basically with my hat in hand asking for an opportunity, he took and embraced what I was doing,
so just the way he reacted to that situation, I thought was great. Ended up wining two state championships
during my time there, and in my sophomore year, I was a co-MVP at the state,
so it was...it was the time and effort he put into me help me develop and further my education
as well as my athletic endeavors, and...and when I finished playing baseball, and I finished college,
he was coaching up in the PAC 10, and I was out in California. I made contact with him, and he came down and saw him,
and just said, "Thank you. Thank you for everything he did for me." And...it's one of those moments...
experiences that...that I've never forgotten just because he went out of his way to help me,
and...and I've tried to do the same for...for others in...in my position now.