There is one word that best describes my subculture and me, "baseball". Baseball has been the way of life for me for the last sixteen years. One team really stands out for me as far as having to come together and work not only as a team, but work together as a family.
The year was 1998, and it was my senior year at Joshua High School. We did not have any standout superstars on our team that could anchor us. Therefore, we had to work as hard as we could as a team or a unit in order to win any ballgames. Definitely, the task-oriented member of our family was our head coach, James Paul. He was the person who gave us the belief that we can win, and that we can compete with the teams that are filled with studs. He not only taught be to be disciplined on the baseball field, bit he taught me how to be a man and rise to any challenge that I was faced with. That is a lesson that will stick with me for the rest of my life. My assistant coach, Greg Dickerman, hands down, had to be the social-emotional leader of our team. When we were down as a team, he would be the one to keep our heads up. When we were down individually, such as, if we were in a slump, or just were not playing well, he would take time out of his day to take us out to eat, or to a Ranger game to talk to you on a personal level. He let you know how good you are and how good you will be if you just believe in yourself. That is the key to being good, believing that you are good in baseball and in life. Our catcher, Justin Tennery, was definitely the take charge guy, the one who thinks that he is the only one with any ability. Don't get me wrong, he was good, but he could have a lot better if he did not think he was the best. Maybe, he could have work a little harder to get a little bit better. At the same time, he was also the traveler. Justin was always worring about what the softball team was doing. Whether they were looking at him or talking about him is what he was interested in instead of concentrating on the task at hand.