Part of the reason my family moved into the school district was because of the reputation of the baseball program at El Camino Real High School. The school had produced countless Division I and pro baseball players in its history. It was a high school baseball powerhouse. So I wasn’t surprised when I didn’t make the Varsity team until my Junior year. And it wasn’t a total shock when I wasn’t a full-time Varsity starter until my Senior year.

I was very much a late bloomer, and the team was stacked with talent!

During the fall semester of my Senior year, the “off-season” for baseball, my head coach asked me a question that I look back on now as a turning point in my baseball career.

The whole team was circled-up on the blacktop stretching before practice. Coach Matt LaCour was walking around talking to the team, and he asked the group a theoretical question, “Who’s gonna bat fourth for us this year?”

In my head, the answer was Casey Green, our third baseman who had a full-ride scholarship waiting for him to go to Cal State Northridge. Or maybe it would be Eric Pettis, who went on to play at UCLA and was eventually drafted by the Philadelphia Phillies. Or maybe it would even be Sammy Donabedian, our starting catcher who had a baseball scholarship to UC Irvine. I definitely didn’t think it would be me.

But being a 17-year-old smart-ass kid, I said, “Why not me?”

And to my surprise Coach, LaCour looked back at me and said, “Why not you?”

Mind. Blown.

Why not me? I had never even considered it. I wasn’t the best player on the team. I knew that.

But why couldn’t I be?

That comment circled in my head over and over on repeat for the rest of that semester. It gave me the energy to wake up and go to the gym before school. It gave me purpose in the way I practiced. It gave me confidence in the way I stepped into the batter’s box. I embodied the “why not me?” mentality and made it come true.

And for the majority of that year, I ended up hitting fourth. I ended the season hitting .482 with 8 HR. And was named to the All-Conference Team.

If you are a coach or a parent reading this, how can you inspire your player to reach for a goal they never even considered?

If you are a player reading this, how can you open your mind to the possibility that you can be better than you ever imagined?

Why not you?