As a little leaguer you stand in the box and imagine yourself hitting the game winning home run in the World Series or state title game. You dream of throwing the last strike, fielding the last ground ball, or catching the last flyball to win the whole thing.
What you don’t ever think of is sitting on a bucket at the end of the dugout on someone else’s field, watching a team of young men that dreamed the same dream as you accomplish something that will connect us all for the rest of our lives. As a coach, it truly is much sweeter than having won it yourself as a player.
This group of young men started something several years ago that would prove to be a force to be reckoned with. Their dedication to pursuit of perfection is truly astounding.
Never before have we had a group that had one goal in mind and refused to settle for anything but that goal, no matter what the hurdle would be. Not a tough loss to a state champion Gladstone, a home loss to a state runner-up Warrenton team, or even a 2 year break due to a global pandemic was going to stop them.
They pushed each other, they cried together, they bled together, and sometimes even fought with each other, yet all the while, doing it for the same reason. They just had different ways of wanting to get there.
On a spectacular day in rural Corvallis, their dreams of that goal would come true. Bringing a state title to Brookings was never the main goal for our coaching staff, but we would be lying if we said it wasn’t on our minds.
We committed our lives to building young men and students first. We knew that a foundation of character would provide whatever else we wanted to achieve. We believed in our process, and cherished the opportunity that the parents gave us to truly be allowed to coach them. Ultimately, that’s what would prove to be our road map to the greatest moment any coach who’s ever sat on a bucket would ever experience.
Congratulations to our community, our families, our fans, and our program. Never been so proud to be a Bruin!
