In today’s episode coach Jen and coach Aaron are joined by Ryver Gray, a player on Aaron’s team, along with Dawson Taylor and John Michael Feld, who are college players and friends of Slide podcast team member Bryson Mitchell.
Ryver is 7 years old and is one of the winners of our Umpire appreciation contest. He loves to catch and play outfield and thinks baseball is a fun way to exercise. Ryver is also playing on another team in Travel Ball, where it’s a little faster and harder. His favorite memory of the game is hitting a home run. The best thing about Ryver is that he loves to play anywhere on the team; it doesn’t matter which position as long as he’s playing.
Dawson is a pitcher, while John plays a catcher for the University of North Greenville. They recently won a National Championship together. Greenville is a Division 2 school and played a Californian school in the championship. John started out playing baseball at around 3 years old. The difference between him and other kids was that his parents wouldn’t let him play all year in case he got burnt out on baseball.
The complete opposite, Dawson played year-round. However, they both played multiple sports. Dawson continued this through high school, whereas John picked one sport to focus on at age 12. When it comes to game prep, they will watch some film and break it down, but it’s more often one-on-one with the coach.
John and Dawson want kids to understand that it takes a lot of work to be in the big leagues. Don’t be upset if you can’t be just like them when you start. Practice every day and have fun.
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