“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...” More than 160 years after Charles Dickens opened A Tale of Two Cities with this famous phrase, these words describe some of the formative moments of my life as they pertain to the extracurricular activities I am most passionate about. It was the best of times... I was 14 years old, and I was sliding and diving on the baseball field, making plays at third base. I was 16 years old, and my siblings wanted to play basketball, like I did when I was their age. It was the worst of times… I was 14 years old, and no matter how well I played, my baseball team kept losing because we didn’t have an experienced catcher. I was 16 years old and navigating a demanding academic and athletic schedule, while no one had come forward to coach my brother’s basketball team. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times… I was 14 years old with a long history of joking that I could never be a baseball catcher because the one time I tried it as a 7-year-old, it was uncomfortable, painful, and I was very bad at it. But our team had a need. Unsure, I approached my coach with the request to train to become a catcher. I put in hours upon hours, sweated buckets, watched countless MLB plays, stretched so hard I could almost fold myself in two, etc. I learned to love not only the physical but also the mental demands of the position, I became my team’s catcher and we got to play good baseball. The joke was on me – I went on to become a multi-year varsity starting catcher for my high school and am now planning to be a catcher in college. I was 16 years old, and my schedule was demanding but I understood I could make a difference coaching so I reluctantly became the head coach of a team of 10-year-old boys. I led practices, taught basic basketball skills, and navigated emotional outbursts. My team played well and we lost a heartbreaker in the playoff semifinals. I didn’t know I could coach. I didn’t know I could coach physical and emotional skills. This season I’m coaching two teams. The 4th/5th grade Wonder Boys* and the kindergarten/1st grade Tomato Frogs** are having great seasons, and this Summer I’ll be coaching kids in multiple sports in multiple summer camps. I'm eager to continue my baseball career in college, and to continue to coach young athletes! Caedmon Little ---------------------------------- Footnotes: *the coaches choose the team name; the requirement for the 10 and 11-year-old age group is to be a college mascot and my 10-year-old brother voted for the team to be named after the Arkansas Tech Wonder Boys **the requirement for the 5 and 6-year-old age group is to be an animal name and this is the one my 5-year-old brother liked best