All throughout my youth, my coaches and mentors were always much older than me. My peers valued this age gap, as they believed that it meant quality advice, but I despised it. I would try to talk about pop culture or just simply joke with coaches, but the gap in age made it difficult. As a result, I dreaded practice and viewed the sport as a chore instead of a hobby. This all changed when I was introduced to my baseball coach, Coach Daniel Chavez at Arcadia High School (AHS).
Graduating in 2022 from AHS, Coach Daniel Chavez returned to his alma mater to serve as a coach. In the beginning, I often forgot he was now a coach and still viewed him as a player. Our close age allowed us to bond and connect differently than I have with previous coaches. I viewed him as both a coach and also a person who I could talk to about nearly anything. His competitive spirit also brought excitement that could not be replicated to the field. One time, I got a hit off of him in a scrimmage and began to heckle him; the next time I went up to bat, he reflected on his glory days and threw his hardest 75 mile per hour fastball.
He brought a youthful and energetic mentorship to our team. He was both a role model and one of my best friends on the team. His age was not something that held him back but rather it elevated his coaching, making him easily relatable and highly respected. In my final season as an Apache baseball player he was the highlight; he made every game more memorable and every practice worth going to.I stayed on the baseball team not necessarily for a love of the sport, but for the camaraderie and friendship that Coach Chavez inspired.
Now that I’ve stepped away from baseball completely, my gratitude towards him has only grown. At the moment I was just happy to be enjoying baseball again, and I didn’t fully recognize the impact he had on me, but I can finally see that because of him I have memories that I will forever cherish, and that is more than any coach has ever done for me. A coach is someone who teaches you how to play the game, how to work as a team, and someone who picks you up when you fail. Coach Chavez is so much more than that; he is a young man who single handedly motivates me everyday in hopes that I can one day be half the man he is.
