New Team, New Look

December was a bit of stressful time for Casen and us. He had baseball tryouts with his Wildcatter team and, much to our surprise, did not end up making the team. It was quite disappointing for him (and us). We had been told as a team that there would be a few new faces, but even during Casen's one on one evaluation at the end of the season with the coach, there had not ever been any indication that he would be cut. Looking back, we should have been concerned when we were serving at the Houston Food Bank with the team and some of the other boys were talking in front of Casen about a private tryout they had with the coach . . .but I digress. Casen is not one to talk about his emotions or how he is feeling, and truthfully I am not sure he knew exactly what he was feeling. But the days following the call with the coach when he was told he didn't make the team were hard. He was quiet and sad and really didn't care to talk about it. Shane was angry and I was angry and sad. Angry that the coach did not give us just some sort of heads up so we could prepare Casen for what could be and so that we could be looking for another team. Sad because I loved the bonds our family had formed with a few of the other families and knew that we would no longer be able to hang out with them as we had.

The Wildcatters tryouts were held later than other teams, so that left Shane scrambling to find a team for Casen. After trying out for a few teams, Casen was offered a position on Texas Twelve. This organization has teams across Texas, however Casen made the top team for his age bracket with the team based out of Katy. The only downside to this team, according to Casen, is their colors are maroon (like Texas A&M). LOL!

This weekend was the first tournament of the season with the new team and and it was great to be back out at the ballpark. The boys finished second against the Banditos, who are the #1 team in the country. The Banditos recruit players from all across the country (literally) and have many players who are a year older (but look like grown men) and at this age when boys are going through puberty, it makes a huge difference. You may ask yourself as I often do, how the heck is this possible? In baseball, age groups really are not based off of age, but instead of graduating year. So some parents choose to hold their children back a year in school so they have a size advantage. Regardless, our team played well and Casen had a great weekend both hitting and pitching - so fun to watch!

While I know it is early in the season, and despite the heartache we all felt, it looks like this all turned out to be a blessing. Casen is getting great coaching and is with a great group of boys. It will be hard to replace the bonds we had formed with a few of our Wildcatter families, but who knows, maybe one day we will end up on the same team again.