Baseball Season Wrap-Up

The Sheldon baseball team ended the season ranked number seventeen by OSAA with an overall record of 14-13 for the 2023 season. The team continued getting better after every game and every practice. “The season has been doing better the last few weeks because we got to practice outside,” said freshman Ty Burnham, who is on varsity. The first day of practice started February 27, and the first month of the season was filled with rain outs and wet fields.

Lots of the athletes on the baseball team have been playing for many years. “I have been playing my whole life and I want to keep playing as long as I can; I want to play in college,” said Burnham.

Lots of people forget that athletes are still students and they also have school and work outside of baseball, and it can be a struggle to keep track of it. No matter how nervous they could be feeling before a game they never seemed to play as if they were nervous.

The next season will be different because they won’t have the current seniors on the team anymore, but they will have new players joining the team and get another shot at doing well.

“I’m proud of how we came together as a team and brought in together for a play or run,” said sophomore Asher Olson.

The whole varsity baseball team has put in a great effort in building a better team each season. All of the teammates try their very best to improve their skills and their teams skills by working together as a union. It helps them work better together when they are close with their coaches and mentors. “We have a good team environment and we are all close to our coaches,” said Burnham.

Before a game, athletes always want to be physically prepared, but people forget that being mentally prepared is also as important. There are lots of different ways to mentally prepare, like maintaining a positive attitude, maintaining a high level of selfmotivation, and using positive selftalk. Mental training helps prepare the mind to help you perform at your best. Mental factors such as confidence, focus, self-belief, and motivation are very important to an athletes’ performance and can help take an athlete to the next level if the physical ability is already there.

Sheldon students, staff, and coaches are so proud of how hard student athletes work. “I am most proud of the way we improved towards the end of the season,” said senior CJ Franklin. They have succeeded working through the obstacles of stress, pressure, and the task of balancing academics and athletics. As the school year comes to an end we have to say goodbye to all of the amazing senior athletes who worked so hard to get where they are, and how hard they will work in the future.