Todd’s Take: Proud Dad Moment When My Son Shows Character

On Saturday (May 2), my wife Carrie and I went to a season-ending awards ceremony at East Valley High School to pay tribute to the players, coaches and parents of varsity and junior varsity baseball players.

My 16-year-old son, Drew, was one of just three players from each squad to, much to our pleasant surprise, be given a special award.

The award, the only handed out that day by head coach Hyatt, was called the "Compete With Character" trophy. The award was voted entirely by the fellow players and not the coaches.

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Drew, a Sophomore catcher, was singled out. The coach read aloud some of the comments that the kids wrote down as to why they voted for a particular player or teammate.

For Drew's sake, it was mentioned that he always had a positivity towards his fellow teammates and a joke or three to keep the mood light in the dugout. Because of his position, he was also tasked with relaying defensive alignments and the like to keep the squad up to speed with what the coaching staff had in mind.

While we weren't expecting him to get any hardware, we couldn't have been more proud as parents. We always want to think that our kids are doing alright but it is always nice to get that validation publicly. We have always tried to instill the ideals of having fun, respecting the coaches and classmates and the game in and of itself. Hopefully, we are on the right track.

Way to go Drew! Mom and dad are very proud of you!