As I near the end of my time at the University of Indianapolis, I would not trade my four years for anything. The experiences I have endured during my time here have shaped me into the man I am today.
Coming into college, I thought I had it all figured out. I was an all-conference football player and an all-state baseball player. I thought I would easily find my footing in college athletics. I could not have been more wrong.
Over my first two seasons on the UIndy baseball team, I tallied only 34 at-bats and five hits. I was a complete head-case and could not handle failure. My coaches could not play me at times due to my lack of mental strength.
I would spend hours in the batting cages, trying to fix things or figure out why I could not hit the ball well consistently. I would leave the facility two or three hours after practice ended, with my back and legs locking up because I had taken so many swings.
After two years of doing this day in and day out, I realized that I needed to make serious changes in my life. The ironic thing is, almost none of the changes that I made were physical: they were all mental. This is where my faith, family, friends and academics came into play.
One of my best friends from home, also a baseball player, introduced me to mental training exercises such as reading, writing, breathing, visualization and more. We would take walks and talk about our lives, sometimes not even mentioning baseball. Through his help, I developed a routine to take into my junior year that changed my life forever.
That routine consisted of relying on my faith and finding things that I enjoyed doing outside of baseball. I picked up reading books, meditation, journaling and more prayer. My perspective on life completely changed. I finally realized that in the grand scheme of things, baseball is such a minuscule part of life.
During my junior year, I did not start for the first half of the baseball season. Through my routines, I was able to keep my head on straight and be ready for my opportunity. That opportunity came on a random Tuesday game against Purdue Northwest University, where in my first at-bat in my first start, I hit a home run, and the weight of the world was off my shoulders.
I started every game from that moment on, becoming a key contributor to a team that played in the conference tournament, NCAA regional and NCAA Super Regional. I also hit a home run in all three of those tournaments.
Ironically, around the same time that I started getting playing time, I was approached by the former Editor-in-Chief at The Reflector, Luke Cooper, about a position on the staff. At first, I told him no, but he and other people kept telling me that I would be great for the position. After some consideration, I applied for the role of Sports Editor at The Reflector.
I interviewed a couple of weeks before the 2025-26 school year and was offered the position. At first, I will admit, I was not very good at journalistic writing. If you could have read the first article draft, you would have thrown the paper in the trash. Thankfully, the other editors took me under their wings and helped me improve to the point where I now feel confident in my ability to write.
I am grateful that I have spent this year covering sports for The Reflector. Working in this position has allowed me to grow and learn different avenues in the sports media landscape.
As I finish my time at UIndy, I have realized that the lessons that I have learned go far beyond the baseball field or classroom. The struggles I faced early in my career forced me to confront myself in foreign ways, but ultimately helped me grow as an athlete, and more importantly, as a person.
Through my faith, discipline and the support of those around me, I learned how to handle failure, trust the process and find balance in life. Baseball gave me incredible memories, but more importantly, it gave me perspective.
Now, in my senior season, I am a key contributor to the team. I start just about every game and lead the team in some offensive categories. With just a few weeks left in the season, I am looking forward to hopefully winning many games and making a deep postseason run.
I came into college thinking that I had everything figured out. I leave knowing that growth comes from being uncomfortable, that mental strength trumps physical strength and that who I am off the baseball field matters far more than anything I could ever do on it. With all this being said, I would not trade my experiences for anything.
