The Stingers 2023-2024 JV Baseball has to be discussed. The team is unique and has many positive qualities, from their mentality to bonding, that can be learned from. Besides being a great team, they have life lessons to teach the Seven Hills community.
First of all, baseball does not get the recognition and spotlight as other sports in the school. “Baseball is called America’s pastime, but for Seven Hills students, it seems like the “time has passed” on baseball,” said sophomore Adam Schaefer. Junior Max Ralph said, “Almost everyone in the school has gone to a basketball, soccer, tennis, or even lacrosse game at least once, but I’m not sure I can say the same for baseball.” Baseball doesn’t have the same hype or excitement around it as other sports in the school.
The team’s qualities that make them stand out are their mindset and bonding as a team. Sophomore Anish Argawal said, “I think the culture of this team is something special; it is like a brotherhood.” The team has the mentality of constant improvement, which plays a crucial role in their success. It is unique to find a JV team like this at the school with their dedication, mindset, and brotherhood. Even though they have had to deal with struggles, hardship, and failure at times, they turn this into their motivation for success.
After losses, the coaches tell the team what they need to work on and then deliver an inspirational quote or speech to motivate them for the next game. For example, CJ Elfers, the coach, said after a loss, “We lost, but that’s not the important thing; the important thing is that we played our hardest and gave it our all; it’s all about improvement if we get down ourselves about the loss, we will never improve, but by learning from our losses and maintaining a positive attitude, we can continually improve.” Coach Elfers continued, “Most players get down on themselves when they find out they are in JV, but the reason I tell the players is that if you focus on what’s out of your control, you will never be happy; focus on what’s in your control.”
Junior Max Ralph said, “Our coaches have taught many life lessons from baseball that, believe it or not, has helped improve my own life and mentality to improve as a person.”
There are two life lessons to learn from this team: The first one is to focus on what is in your control, not what’s out of your control. By doing this, it is possible to always maintain a positive attitude and mentality no matter what life throws your way. The second life lesson is that it’s not what happens to you but how you respond to what happens to you. You can always choose what to do with what life has thrown at you, and you can choose to either make it into something positive to be learned from or maintain a negative mentality. Even something as minuscule as JV Baseball there are life-changing and valuable lessons to be learned from proving that if you have the right mindset you can make everything in your life something to be learned from and be a positive lesson to incorporate in your life.
