AIDEN MORALES

As the bell rings and most students go home for the day, Aiden Morales packs up his gear and heads over to the baseball eld. He dedicates almost all his a ernoons to what he cares about most, baseball. He’s played shortstop and pitcher since he came to Hillsborough in his Sophomore year.

Aiden found his love for the sport at an early age. His father introduced him to baseball when he was just ve and he joined a little league team called the Tigers in Citrus Park. Just a few years later, a er a lot of practice and hard work, he was chosen as one of the best players in the league of his age group to participate in the summer team, giving him the motivation to keep pursuing the sport. He continued to play through his rst year of high school, at Sickles, before deciding to switch to Hillsborough. He felt that the Hillsborough team was a much better t for him. e coaches were far more helpful, and his teammates were more welcoming. On one memorable trip when he was 12, he traveled with his team to Cooperstown, New York, famous for its baseball history. e park they played at is known for being easy to get home runs at because of the low fences, but he was struggling to get any throughout the trip.

“In our second to last game I nally got a home run, and I was super excited,” Aiden said. Aiden says his friends are one of the best parts of the sport. When he was on the little league team, he met his rst of many lifelong friends, Kyler Martin. “It gives you a lot of friendships. Some of my best friends have come from baseball.” His friends help get him through the hard days, especially at practice. When his coaches make the team run, he and his teammates complain together. When he strikes out, they help him talk it out, so it doesn’t a ect the rest of the game. e sport is quite challenging not only physically, but also mentally. Failure is a big part of baseball, and only getting to bat about four times each game means there are very few chances to get a good hit. “It’s really mentally challenging to play baseball because you’re gonna fail 70% of the time and to keep going even though you keep failing is really impressive. You’re gonna have a lot of rough days. You can go 0-4-4 strikeouts but the next day you can be amazing.” Aiden says staying positive is key to staying focused on the game. When he strikes out, he can’t let it get in his head too

Game Means

In the future, he wants to stay as close to baseball as possible. He plans on continuing with the sport in college, dreaming of playing at the University of South Florida or the University of Tampa. A

In the meantime, he’s working almost every day, as hard as possible, to be the best that he can be. His love of baseball and the support of others is what keeps him going. He looks up to Tampa Bay Rays player Brett Phillips for his attitude toward the game. “He [Phillips] is always having the most fun out there and always energetic, always bringing his teammates up.” Aiden o wears a shirt that says, “baseball is fun”. made by Phillips, is a testament to what Aiden loves about the sport, and why he plays: Simply because it’s fun, and what he really cares about is though keep failing of next head much. Otherwise, it a ects how he plays the rest of the game. with South erward, Aiden wants to go into the sports medicine eld so that he’s able to stay involved. the others to player en e shirt, having a good time.

Tanishq is one of the few people to be a date savant to help him through his everyday life.

He says a date savant is a type of great memory which means he is able to recall dates and tell anyone what happened that day. One of Tanishq’s cool memories was his rst time driving a car with his mom on September 22, 2020, he remembers being scared but luckily his mom was there to help him through it. Being a date-savant can help him stay on top of his academics, but it does not mean he does not need any type of notes just because he has a great memory. He says his memory still gets a little foggy when it comes to certain things, like what he has done throughout that day and what happened that day. He says he does not totally rely on his memory. Being a datesavant can help him in his classes by trying to remember certain dates in history or certain facts that one needs to remember.

Tanishq believes that being a date-savant can help anyone become a history teacher or any type of teacher because you will be able to recall anything really easily. One of the things he loves about being a date savant is reliving his family’s memory he can remember anything when going through pictures of his family it is like a walk down memory lane for him.