Today we went out to the St. Xavier practice. Coach Specht's staff and players at St. Xavier have built a program on a belief in becoming a part of something larger than one's self, and the players have clearly bought into this selfless concept. Chris and I interviewed nearly a dozen players and I have never seen this type of solidarity among high school players for such high ideals. While motivating kids to come together in the name of victory and personal pride is a task in itself, the people of St. Xavier have made a point of setting the bar much higher than just repeating as Ohio state champs. The players were a refreshing reminder of the beauty of high school sports and what they can do in a person's life.
After our time at St. Xavier, Chris and I were hooked up with free tickets down the first base line for the Reds game thanks to St. Xavier alumni Dan and Mike. Now one might say that all these nice things I just said about the program are because of little things like free Reds tickets, I just say you're a bit jealous and rightfully so. The game was a blowout with a ton of impressive offensive blasts from San Diego, but the highlight game came around the 5th inning when Chris brought back 7 hotdogs that were going for 1 dollar and was generous enough not to eat them all and gave me a few.
Tomorrow we are headed over to watch Lakeland practice and meet some of their staff and players. Tune back in for Chris' journal entry to hear how things go as we hang out with the #1 ranked team in the country.