A Kid who is Right where he Belongs | Cal Ripken Baseball | Angela Rockey Photography
Incredible: too extraordinary and improbable to be believed
What a whirlwind the past 3 months have been for us as a family! The whole family has been blown away by Rylan’s complete 180’ that we have witnessed during these past 3 months. Many of you know the struggles we’ve had with this boy with playing organized sports and the pressures that come along with it for him. You know, like talking in big groups LOL, etc. After taking the past two years off, he FINALLY agreed to sign up for baseball again! We were all so happy- and he was so hesitant. He LOVES the game, could ramble off nearly every player's stats in seconds, plays it with his dad and brother, and in the past could take or leave the organized part of it. Well, he landed on the most perfect team, with the perfect set of coaches. One of them joked that he’d “really like it if Rylan would talk a little bit…” I quickly hushed him and said, “shhhh… this is the first time we have had him on a team in two years!! Don’t try to make him talk to you!!” HAHAHA! His team was full of great kids, hilarious kids (when he came home and retold the stories he would laugh until he cried), and a little girl who rocked pigtail braids who could catch his 🔥 FIRE. She was a loud leader who encouraged the team, “come on Ry, you got this kid!” she would yell to him while catching, and she gave him the confidence to throw those strikes- but don’t ask him to admit it!
Fast forward- their team ends up in the Championship Game! They were definitely the underdog team. All pressure is on Ry pitching on this MLB stadium- no biggie! He’s got this! ANGELS WIN! Dads are shaking Shawn’s hand for his son’s job well done. Ry darts into the dugout to quickly stop all attention on him!! This kid finally got his first home run during this game, which he had wanted all season- on a MLB stadium (and the ball rolled to the fence!!), so proud!! Again, he tries to duck out as his team was pounding on his helmet to congratulate our boy!! Then comes time for the Tournament Ball…. RYLAN!! He grabs that ball, shakes his coaches hands, and runs to his Mama! I could see in his face he just couldn’t stand all of the families staring at him. I just hugged him tight and tried to decompress all of his embarrassment. He loves doing great things, but would probably rather go unnoticed!!
Next up, All Star tryout! Yep, tryouts!! His first time back on the field in years and he is set to go to his first tryout??!! I asked him, “How do you feel? Are you a little nervous?” He honestly replies with- “not really!” He continues to amaze us. There were all kinds of kids there. About 50 kids in his group that he had to tryout with that night. He got the phone call that he was selected for the Rangers! This is where we saw the most growth in Rylan’s maturity. He had practice FIVE nights a week, for TWO hours each night. Our boy got ready each day on his own, making sure he matched and looked sharp (which he doesn’t even care to do for school each day)! He wanted to be there 15-20 minutes early each day, never once complained about the scorching hot practices, and learned so much on this team. I could just cry tears of happiness thinking about all the growth I’ve seen in my boy in the past three weeks alone.
The growth these 13 little players made from day one to their last game was impressive. I’ve never seen Rylan want something so badly. Tears flowed when they lost the game that sent them home. Rylan played amazing, and here are some of his highlights:
- Pitched a total of 77 pitches with 65% of them being strikes!!! He started the first game and pitched all 4 innings. He was brought into the second game as a last ditch effort to get them out of the inning, where we only had one out. It was the top of the 5th inning and we were tied 14-14 at 10:50 p.m., being these boys second game of the day. It was our chance to advance to the next game. He got the team out of the inning with only 8 pitches! We took the lead 16-14, with some amazing hits- Ry hits a triple! Ry comes into the next inning pitching strikes, gets one out and hits his limit! He wanted to finish that game so badly! You could hear the families in the bleachers all gasp when he was pulled. He got on base all but 3 times for the whole tournament. In moments like these, you realize as a parent how blessed you and your children are in this world. We are forever thankful for the turnaround we have seen in our child and the opportunities that all fell into place in the past three months!
10u Rangers All Stars 2021