Latest / The Bubble Lounge (Highland Park & University Park Texas) / Meet the 2025 Highland Park Baseball Captains

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Meet the 2025 Highland Park Baseball Captains · The Bubble Lounge (Highland Park & University Park Texas)

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• 1:14
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Bub Lounge.
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: I'm Martha Jackson, and it is coming into spring, which means it's baseball season, and today we are joined by the 2025 baseball captains and they have a great event coming up on January 25th.
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: It's Meet the Scots at Scotland Yard.
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: It's the perfect opportunity to bring your family out and meet the team.
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: You'll get autographs, there's raffle baskets, there's In-N-Out burgers.
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: There's so much fun to be had.
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: It is really a great family fun event.
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: So please join them on January 25th.
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: And now it's time to meet the captains.
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: Let's start by going around and introducing yourselves, telling us what position you play and a fun fact about you that no one knows about.
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: Hi, I'm Gray Miller.
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: I play third and I pitch, and a fun fact is I can touch my nose with my tongue.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: Oh, wow.
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: I'm Anderson Curtis, I'm center fielder and I also pitch, and the fun fact about me is I can wiggle my ears.
• 2:08
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 2:10
  Speaker 4: I'm Will Schultz.
• 2:11
  Speaker 4: I catch and DH and a fun fact is I can do a perfect cartwheel.
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: Oh, well, that's impressive.
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: All of you, I love that.
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: Well, tell us how you got started in baseball and how you knew that that was your calling.
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: For me growing up it was like playing backyard with every single sport and match.
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: It was like growing up it was soccer, lacrosse, basketball, football and baseball and then over a year I just kind of like eliminated sports and then I liked being outdoors all year round.
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: So baseball was the one just like felt natural to be outside all the time with friends.
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: Yeah, same with him.
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: Um, yeah, ever since I was a little kid, I've always played baseball, baseball, football, basketball, soccer.
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: Then, over time as well, I limited sports.
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: I, yeah, and I chose baseball eventually in high school.
• 2:56
  Speaker 4: So yeah, um, kind of the same thing here.
• 2:59
  Speaker 4: I was put into baseball really, really young, and something about the sport and the game, just like game, just makes me love it more than the other sports.
• 3:08
  Speaker 4: So I made the decision in high school to drop those sports and go full throttle baseball.
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: Well, when you know, you know, you know you just feel something different with the sport of choice and you knew that that was what you guys wanted to get into.
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: Well, you guys are all the captains this year, you're all seniors.
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: Tell me about when you found out the news that you were chosen as captain um, it was kind of like like a relaxed environment.
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: So we do like the speeches and then we go in the locker room and we all like hang out.
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: And I thought right when we walked in and be like a quiet place, like everyone's stressing out but like really all just like enjoy, like they just talked and like it was a fun time.
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: Like time, 20 minutes went by.
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: He came in like said the names and it's like dab each other up, who got in, who didn't, and like it was us three left and it was like I was like in shock oh my god moment, so yeah.
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: I mean he kind of hit head on the nail right there, like once, like we ever like saying the speeches, like everything coming up to that was really nerve-wracking.
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: And then after that, like Once we went to the locker room and then like I really like how coach Yoder does that, like just bringing the team like whoever does the captain speeches, and just like hang out with each other and just like, yeah, and just a fun environment and just no stress-free, yeah.
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: I.
• 4:23
  Speaker 4: Kind of had a little different experience.
• 4:25
  Speaker 4: I was really stressed out the whole time.
• 4:27
  Speaker 4: Giving speeches, public speaking, is not really my thing, so I was super nervous and shaking my leg the whole time.
• 4:35
  Speaker 4: I think other people could tell Hopefully not, but it is nice that when we were in the locker room waiting to see the results, like I was surrounded by people I love and that was, I guess, a calming factor right, right.
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: Well, you know leadership and team culture is so important when you're on a team like this.
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: And tell me again my leadership style.
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: I guess, just like not just to be like a bark at everyone.
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: It's more so to be like a friend, someone that's there for you and create a fun environment and it's like everyone works together.
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: You can say whatever, do whatever and enjoy it.
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: If you're not having fun and like you're not really like getting better at the end of the day yeah.
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: So to me, being a leader is making everyone around you better and putting in 100 at practice every day and just being a, being a friend on and off the field, and yeah I mean, if you, if you meet the group of guys that were leading, it's almost like we don't even have to be leaders.
• 5:49
  Speaker 4: Everybody, like, is an individual leader themselves and we all, uh, have a role in the team and the culture that we, that we make, and so it's.
• 5:58
  Speaker 4: It's pretty easy to do our jobs as captains and we kind of just, when the sparks getting low, like we're the guys that just re-spark it and then you just like watch the team and it next thing you know we're like the loudest in the dugout.
• 6:11
  Speaker 4: And when we're down, like three, nothing, like we're.
• 6:15
  Speaker 4: We're the type of team that will fight really hard, and that's just because of the people on the team, not just because of our leadership right, right.
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: Well, you know, for some of the younger, the newer team members, it can feel a little awkward for them to feel a part of the team.
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: What do you guys do to really make them feel confident, hype them up and make them feel part of the team?
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: um, making part of the team.
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: It was like I feel like us like as seniors, like we were like really like supportive and like inclusive with them because, like there's 20 guys in the team is half the us are seniors, but most of us were from off season, so we already had a bond from not this just this year, but the past year, so we already knew everyone.
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: And then some, like the underclassmen, the juniors, like were part of the varsity team last year because they know them pretty well.
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: But I feel like everyone that team knew each other going into the year, which like made each other like it's easy to talk to and like just get along with, which makes it so much easier this far yeah, that's true.
• 7:15
  Speaker 3: So, like the new people that come in, I always try to be like um, they're my, they're my best friend.
• 7:21
  Speaker 3: I'm trying to act like that because I was in their position one time.
• 7:23
  Speaker 3: I was new to varsity last year.
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: At first I thought it was a little nerve-wracking.
• 7:26
  Speaker 3: I didn't really know all the seniors and then all the captains just talked to me and were my friend and were the best teammates I could ever ask for.
• 7:35
  Speaker 3: So I'm going to do the best I can to do that this year for the new varsity people.
• 7:42
  Speaker 4: Well, like the younger guys, we always do things just as a team, like we're all hanging out at someone's house or something like that.
• 7:49
  Speaker 4: But another thing that I think has brought the younger guys closer to us is after practice we take a little cool down period, invented by Parker Yoder and that's the time between practice and our lift.
• 8:02
  Speaker 4: We'll take about 10 minutes and we'll just like sit there and like talk about our days and just like have a laugh, and that that's kind of a highlight of my day every day.
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: I think that's so great, because that was actually going to be.
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: My next question is you know, these team connections are so important to building trust and friendships and all the things to translate to really good games, and is there anything else that you guys do off the field to spend time and just cultivate those relationships?
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: Oh, I guess, like we on the weekend, we will occasionally hang out.
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: We did like this past weekend.
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: We watched the college football playoffs Penn State Notre Dame one one night.
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: It was like the first time it was a group people hung out school and like throughout the year we'll hang out and then, like spring break, it's like everyone's out of town.
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: So we'll hang out pretty much every single day, which is like a cool bonding experience for everyone.
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: It's like get to know each other and just have a good time because you guys are still playing games.
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: Yes, right, you don't get to take this whole no, we go off and go somewhere fun like.
• 9:03
  Speaker 3: Thomas Burton, dallas, entire time right uh, I would say spring break's like the most important part of the season, like bonding as a team, because we'll either we'll some, we'll go to someone's ranch or lake house and now that's a really good bonding experience just to have fun with each other, yeah, and then also like hang out over the weekend also helps.
• 9:22
  Speaker 3: So, like this past thursday we went to will's house and watched the cultural club game.
• 9:25
  Speaker 3: Like I already said, that was a great experience with the team and just getting the bond with each other early in the season.
• 9:31
  Speaker 4: So, yeah, yeah, um, I don't know if y'all remember our, our first freshman year, when we started off the season pretty badly and then we had spring break and we turned around like I think we won like eight straight games or something like that and the dugout just like felt way easier to communicate with friends because you hung out with them for a whole week straight.
• 9:56
  Speaker 4: Only time you're away from the guys during spring break is when you're sleeping.
• 10:01
  Speaker 4: Like we eat lunch together, breakfast after practice and then we hang out like all day, hop in a pool when it's hot or like do a crawfish boil or something Like we always find something to do and that creates good team chemistry and culture.
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: And so Will you think that those types of things really made the difference.
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: You started off the season not so great.
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: And then after spring break, when you did all those types of things really made the difference.
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: You started off the season not so great.
• 10:27
  Speaker 4: And then after spring break, when you did all those things that really kind of brought you guys together, yeah, it was an incredible turnaround.
• 10:30
  Speaker 4: You could see it in our coach's face.
• 10:32
  Speaker 4: He knew that whatever we were doing, connecting as a team really helped us win the next eight straight games or whatever it was.
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: That's awesome.
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: I don't know about you, but when my teenagers started driving, I was a nervous wreck.
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: So many things that could go wrong and God forbid they get into an accident.
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: Sure, we have car insurance, but for some young drivers the monthly insurance can be higher than the car payment.
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: That's why we're excited to announce that State Farm is lowering their car insurance rates.
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: And you should call our good friend, kathy L Wall with State Farm on Lovers Lane in Dallas.
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: You see, kathy and her team don't just sell car insurance, they sell peace of mind.
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: So if an accident happens, they're actively working on your claim so you can put that accident behind you.
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: And, best of all, kathy will personally talk with your teen driver with some straight talk that will help them appreciate the driving privilege you have provided them.
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: So if you're tired of high rates for auto insurance, please call our good friend Kathy Elwall, state Farm at 214-350-2692 or visit her website at kathylwallcom and let her know.
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: Martha from the Bubble Lounge sent you.
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: Well, the season is about to start.
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: On February 1st, right, you have your first game against McKinney-Boyd.
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: What are you guys doing to prepare for the season to start?
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: Well, right now we still are only practicing during the period, but within the next week or two official practice starts.
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: So we'll go until 5, 530.
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: But up until then we're just hitting and then, once that practice starts, we'll start doing live batters and getting in-game reps to prepare for live pitching.
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: So we're just getting as many swings as ground balls, whatever we can, to prepare for our first game.
• 12:19
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I would say, to prepare for this game on february 1st, we need to hit as much as possible.
• 12:24
  Speaker 3: I think we have had the great success of hitting the last couple years and I think this year we can really turn it around by focusing on ourselves and just not being our own worst enemy and just hitting, and then obviously, like pitching is really important too, and yeah, no um, we've played McKinney-Boyd.
• 12:43
  Speaker 4: This will be our fourth year straight.
• 12:45
  Speaker 4: We play him as our season opener.
• 12:46
  Speaker 4: It's kind of a scrimmage where we figure out our team and what the perfect lineup looks like.
• 12:55
  Speaker 4: We kind of figure out who we are as a team when we play these preseason scrimmages.
• 13:01
  Speaker 4: But I know that McKinney boys is going to be pretty good this year, so we're going to get a good opportunity to see some good pitching and figure out who we are.
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: Right, right.
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: Well, I know that baseball players in general are kind of known for superstitions and just kind of some quirky pregame rituals.
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: Do any of you have anything special that you do to get yourself in the right mindset before a game?
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: It's like some superstitions of mine.
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: I like to double knot my shoes and like tuck them in so like if I do trip which I never have on my laces, like I won't at all and then like to strap my right glove on before my left glove, and it's weird stuff like that.
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: It's like it's like in the mental aspect if I don't do it, it's like it'll like come back to haunt me.
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: So I have to do it in order to be kept in check see, I knew you guys had things like that yeah, so my superstition is to not step on the foul line before any game.
• 14:03
  Speaker 3: I think it's really important that not step on the foul lines yeah, that's always been my superstition, ever since I was like playing in AU to now.
• 14:11
  Speaker 4: Oh wow, I have two Before every game.
• 14:17
  Speaker 4: This started last year.
• 14:19
  Speaker 4: I'd go get the Hudson House chicken and I ate that at home and sometimes in the locker room, but that's my main one.
• 14:28
  Speaker 4: And then over the summer we went on a hot streak of winning 15 games and I don't think I washed a pair of my pants for two weeks during that streak because I was like they're lucky pants and then I accidentally washed them because I I put them outside my bag and we lost the next game.
• 14:45
  Speaker 4: So I don't think I'll be washing my pants after our first win.
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: Well, I know your mom really well and I know she loves that.
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: I know she's very supportive of that superstition.
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: Well, what about matchups this year?
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: Do you guys have any rivals that you know have been going on for a few years?
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: and you're just like so ready to play them.
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: Well, this year we're like going to back down to 5A, so we don't really we've never played these teams in our district, other than one of them last year in a tournament.
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: So we're kind of like a fresh start in a district that everyone's out to get us because our jersey and whatnot, our HP logo, and so it's like coming in clean and playing teams that are obviously gonna be good, a lot of depth through our district and tournaments, and we're gonna face some really challenging teams.
• 15:32
  Speaker 3: So I think we're ready to, uh, any task at hand this year yeah, I would say, moving on the 5a, like we really don't have a true rival.
• 15:39
  Speaker 3: But I've always thought like Frisco-Wakeland's always been a good rival in 5A because we've played them in the playoffs a lot in past years and they're in our district this year, so that'll be a fun matchup.
• 15:49
  Speaker 3: And then obviously, frisco Reedy and Lone Star are the other two teams that I'm really looking forward to play this year.
• 15:56
  Speaker 3: And yeah, just not playing Jesuit like we don't really have a true rival this year, like that was always fun, like beating them last year was amazing and like one of the best games I've ever been a part of.
• 16:05
  Speaker 4: So yeah, I don't know if we have a team that we're rivaling against, but I know we play some of these kids in the summer and like we'll look them up on Twitter and see where they go to high school and and there's definitely some guys that I'll be looking at to make sure that we get them out at the plate Just like little grudges I hold against these people for beating us in the summer, but hopefully we can sit them down and send them back home.
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: Well, you're right.
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: Since you have moved back to 5A, I think that after this season, there will be at least a couple of rivals that erupt from the season.
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, for sure.
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: So, as captains, how do you want to be remembered?
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: What do you want your legacy to be with Highland Park Baseball?
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: My legacy.
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: I just want to be remembered as a guy who was there for everyone.
• 16:55
  Speaker 3: I was just a genuine friend and obviously a great baseball player, but more so, a guy you could just talk to and, like, enjoy being around yeah, I want to be the uh remembered as a player who um left it better than they found it, and that's always what I like to go by.
• 17:12
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm gonna say, um, I want the younger guys to see how tight our team was, as like the team chemistry and stuff like that, and I want them to like love the game and love the team and treat the team how we treat it, because I think that our team chemistry right now is top notch.
• 17:31
  Speaker 4: I think we know everybody, their likes and like, their dislikes and like their, their attitude towards the sport, and I think everybody has a great attitude towards this season and we're just looking forward to.
• 17:45
  Speaker 4: I know I wake up every morning like we're one day closer to February 1st.
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: I love that I can tell you guys are so ready for the season.
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: Is there one word or phrase that you feel like kind of is your theme for the season?
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: what did you say?
• 18:02
  Speaker 4: yeah, I think we we kind of drove here together and we we land on the word grid.
• 18:07
  Speaker 4: I think our team is gritty and we're gonna fight for every out, every base hit, every, every run and every strikeout.
• 18:16
  Speaker 4: And you'll see that in our play that we're like, we're not gonna like let off the pedal, we're gonna go full throttle the whole game.
• 18:23
  Speaker 4: No, no, like, no matter, it's 10, 10, nothing in the third inning, like we're, we're going to find a way to scratch back and win.
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: I love that.
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: Grit is a really good word for for the season.
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: I love that theme.
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: Well, you guys have a really big community event coming up.
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: You have meet the Scots coming up on January 21st.
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: Tell us about that.
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: I mean, it's just like a great event for the community.
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: Kids, whatever age you are, just to come out, meet the team, just get some autographs.
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: For me as a kid, it was just a great memory of coming every single year and seeing these guys.
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: I thought they were all-stars.
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: But now that I'm here it's a reality.
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: I'm just excited to host it this year as the captain.
• 19:06
  Speaker 3: Yeah, meet the Scots has always been one of my favorite things to start off the year, like so whenever I was a kid going to meet the scots it was so cool.
• 19:12
  Speaker 3: Looking up to all the players I thought they're, they're like amazing at baseball, like going to the MLB, like that good, and then now like it's, I'm living a in reality, like you're that guy yeah.
• 19:22
  Speaker 3: I'm that guy.
• 19:23
  Speaker 3: It's pretty cool like all the kids are looking up to us three now, yeah, and me.
• 19:26
  Speaker 3: It's like I'm getting all the autographs.
• 19:28
  Speaker 3: It's.
• 19:29
  Speaker 3: It's pretty cool, pretty cool to see.
• 19:31
  Speaker 4: Yeah I'm excited for the in and out truck, most importantly, but I also love we had the the choir come out last year and they're amazing.
• 19:43
  Speaker 4: I love listening to them sing I think they're great and the bagpipe and everything.
• 19:49
  Speaker 4: I think it's just a good fun culture thing that we get to do and we get to meet the little kids too.
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: I was there last year and I was just blown away by all the details and all the great things.
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: There were raffle baskets in and out, burger, like you said, will and just so many things to do.
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: So many kids out there, so many families.
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: It was such a great opportunity to bring the community together, like the community loves to rally around the sports at Highland Park.
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: You know, we are essentially a very small town within a very big city and sports is a big thing that brings this community together For sure.
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: So what does the community support mean to you?
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: What does it feel like to look up in the stands and see those stands filled?
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: No-transcript.
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: Show up support and it's like there for everyone yeah, I've always thought it was.
• 20:53
  Speaker 3: Having all the community support is always the best, like always going out.
• 20:57
  Speaker 3: So I play center field always.
• 20:58
  Speaker 3: I go out to the field and look at the all the fans always.
• 21:02
  Speaker 4: It makes me so happy that all of them are supporting our team and I always think the best of us and yeah, I love like showing up to the game and like when I'm on deck I hear my, my friends like saying my name, trying to talk to me, and I I want to turn around and say something, but I think coach would get mad at me if I started talking to my friends.
• 21:20
  Speaker 4: But uh, also the noise like when a stadium's loud it, it kind of like eases me.
• 21:27
  Speaker 4: You know you're not so much in your head that you kind of just hear the fans and you're like all right, it's game time, I'm ready to go.
• 21:34
  Speaker 4: But I know we all love our fans and we love to see our friends up in the stands.
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: Okay, that ties in with something I wanted to ask.
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: It does make a difference.
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: When there's loud fans right Like they're stomping their feet, they're cheering together.
• 21:51
  Speaker 4: You can feel that energy on the field right and it like revs you up and it makes a difference in the way you play right 100.
• 21:54
  Speaker 4: I mean the I know gray knows about this but the, the adrenaline they have, like light velo and bullpen velo.
• 22:00
  Speaker 4: Yeah, like when the lights turn on you're throwing five, six mile an hour harder than you are.
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah I get for pitching.
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: It's like the adrenaline in the game.
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: It's like I Can football, like there's like kids like right there and you can hear.
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: But in baseball, eric, you're right there on the field, the fans are right so you can hear it pretty much every I go a pin drop in that in the crowd, just like makes it like it's push you and you're going at 100 time hours an hour on the field, like you're, like you're, you're running, like your body is like just going way faster than they think you are.
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: It's like.
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: The atmosphere on the field is unmatched.
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: So do you feel like the fans in the stands?
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: Are they pretty energetic or they kind of calm, like like at a golf tournament?
• 22:42
  Speaker 4: It depends who's dad's there for sure at a golf tournament.
• 22:42
  Speaker 4: It depends His dad's there for sure You'll get some dads that are they'll they'll sit down the foul line because they know that they'll they'll get.
• 22:52
  Speaker 4: I'll say something.
• 22:53
  Speaker 3: Um, I will say my dad is like very common games and make.
• 22:55
  Speaker 3: It always makes no sense to me.
• 22:56
  Speaker 3: He always brings a book.
• 22:57
  Speaker 3: He always yeah, he's always seeing him Like.
• 23:01
  Speaker 3: I always see him reading in the stands.
• 23:03
  Speaker 3: I'm like I don't know how he does it.
• 23:04
  Speaker 3: It makes no sense.
• 23:05
  Speaker 3: I'll see someone like Mr Schneider last year, just like always focused.
• 23:09
  Speaker 3: Oh, I remember him yeah he was a really good fan for us.
• 23:13
  Speaker 3: Yeah, for sure.
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: So are any of your parents like exceptionally embarrassing, like you can hear them when you're on the field and you're like, oh my gosh, mom, please quit it?
• 23:26
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you're like.
• 23:27
  Speaker 3: Oh, my gosh mom, please quit it.
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: Uh yeah, oh freshman year my mom was pretty bad.
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: He's kind of been a lot better now, but did you have to talk to her?
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: Did you say, mom, please, yeah, can you dial that down?
• 23:31
  Speaker 3: yes, I did especially when I was pitching like freshman year, and she, once she would.
• 23:37
  Speaker 3: She would say one thing like turn the page, and I was just like, let me focus on myself, it's all good now.
• 23:43
  Speaker 3: But yeah, just I would say that.
• 23:45
  Speaker 3: But yeah, yeah, my dad's like always been the calm person, though like he's never reading a book.
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, that cracks me up yep, well, for me it's my grandma when I pitch grandmother yes, she comes to every single game, summer ball, like it's an hour away she'll come from pitching and it's every time I throw a strike and I see her like say something, like go gray and like after a while, like I couldn't say it.
• 24:08
  Speaker 2: Personally, it should be heartbroken by the tell my parents to give her a call and say to calm it down.
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: And luckily she has, but it's like she's always there showing up okay.
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: Well, what about you?
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: I happen to know your parents pretty well.
• 24:21
  Speaker 4: I want to hear this um, I wouldn't say my parents are too crazy, I wouldn't think so.
• 24:26
  Speaker 4: But I have.
• 24:27
  Speaker 4: Like I asked my parents to video my bats and I've had some ruined clips, or I'll have to mute the clips because I'll get a hit and my mom's being a little embarrassing loud and like, oh well, it's like I'll have to cut out the audio of those clips.
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: Okay, that's so funny.
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: My son plays lacrosse as his sport of choice and so if I send him a video, I'll like do it in Instagram and I'll take the sound out, and so I won't let him hear the comments.
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: Sometimes we're like what did you do there, you know, and so that's kind of embarrassing, but that's so funny.
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: I just remember being at some games last year and seeing or hearing some parents that were pretty vocal and I always wondered what do their kids think about that out there?
• 25:10
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: And so you answered that question.
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: So now that I've spent some time with you guys, I've kind of gotten to know you a little bit better.
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: Who on the team has the most contagious energy?
• 25:21
  Speaker 2: Well, for me it's he's a first year varsity is adam ritchie.
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: Last year I got to play on jv and pitch a couple times and it was the jv kids really rallied around his like chirps at the other team.
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: Just like funny things, like everyone get a laugh out and it's like made, like everyone just had like a blast and it was like I forgot I was playing baseball at the time so I was laughing, so the jokes.
• 25:47
  Speaker 3: I would say Parker Yoder.
• 25:49
  Speaker 3: His chirps are pretty funny sometimes and I always think he brings good energy to the team.
• 25:55
  Speaker 3: He's kind of a goofball sometimes but like once he comes to the game he zones in on the game and brings good, contagious energy to the dugout for sure I assume that he's coach yoder's.
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: Yes, okay, great, I know coach yoder.
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: Uh, my son had him last year for history and then I interviewed him last year at the meet the scots event um, I think one of the most electric things to ever watch is when lennox bird gets on the mound.
• 26:22
  Speaker 4: Um, especially when we're down in a game or tied in a game and bases are loaded Like I swear you can hear him huffing and puffing from like two miles away.
• 26:30
  Speaker 4: He's grunting every pitch and humming it in there and he's also just like a great dude to be around in the dugout.
• 26:37
  Speaker 4: I love Lennox and he's got some great energy that brings to the team.
• 26:41
  Speaker 3: I like to add something about that.
• 26:42
  Speaker 3: I like to add something about that.
• 26:42
  Speaker 3: So, um, when we call him the bird man cause his last name is bird and whenever he gets like a big hit, he kind of like flaps his wings.
• 26:49
  Speaker 3: He's like a bird and I think that like brings so much energy.
• 26:51
  Speaker 3: Like I'm a freshman year, we're playing Rockwell Heath and he hits like a triple off the wall and like I've never seen like our team more like and yeah, I hope that like comes this year like more, more doubles for Linux.
• 27:03
  Speaker 3: Oh my gosh, I thought I might add that.
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: I cannot wait to come to your game and I'm going to be watching for that.
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: The bird man.
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah, he has his own double celebration, so yeah, Well, you guys are all seniors and I know my daughter graduated from Highland Park a couple of years ago and you can't cross paths with anyone without them asking what's next.
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: Have you decided where you're going?
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: What are you doing?
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: Are any of you playing baseball?
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: What's going on?
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: uh, I don't plan on playing baseball in college.
• 27:31
  Speaker 2: Um, to study business.
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: I'm down in two schools at tcu and auburn awesome so I want to stay in the south.
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: But just waiting out and just hear.
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: I've already heard from them, but I'm just still debating whether to go yeah, um, I'm not gonna play baseball in college, I think.
• 27:49
  Speaker 3: Just I think I'm going to Texas.
• 27:52
  Speaker 3: Most likely, if I get in, I can go do that or I can do Austin Community College is another way to get in and not I like to do like um sports journalism.
• 28:00
  Speaker 3: I think just being around sports, my whole life is very interesting, like, and I like know all the stats of players and whatnot, and yeah, okay.
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: I'm always impressed with people that remember all that stuff um, I should be hearing back from A&M.
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: I was gonna say do you even have a choice over there?
• 28:18
  Speaker 4: um it's, it's gonna be a tough choice.
• 28:20
  Speaker 4: I know I'm gonna break my parents hard if I decide to go somewhere else, but uh, I'm waiting to hear back from A&M, but I'm also I'm super interested in Oklahoma, so we'll see what the hopefully.
• 28:32
  Speaker 4: I have a hard decision to make.
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: It sounds like you do.
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: I love it.
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: I love it.
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: Well, guys, any final thoughts from for the community as the season kicks off.
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: What do you want to tell the community about the season?
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: Well, I think this year we, instead of having just one tournament at home, we have two tournaments at home, so definitely a lot more home games right before spring break and leading the district and I think let's have.
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: It's a great team and everyone should come out and watch some games yeah, I'll add on that we play.
• 29:03
  Speaker 4: Some really cool teams play like a hawaii team this year.
• 29:06
  Speaker 4: Wow and um, it was either a mississippi or louisiana team or something like that.
• 29:12
  Speaker 4: These tournaments are people will fly in to come play and uh, they're really fun and sometimes they're during school and uh, I know like some teachers will take their classes out come watch our games and we love that.
• 29:24
  Speaker 4: And uh, like, come, come support us because it fires us up, it gives us more juice to go play better.
• 29:31
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I will say on the tournaments.
• 29:33
  Speaker 3: Whenever we have games during the school day, there is a food truck, so that's another way to come out to the game.
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: What else can you ask for?
• 29:40
  Speaker 3: right, you got to bring that up, people don't forget.
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: And, as always, I will include links to Scotts Illustrated so you can see their schedule and you know when to come out to support them.
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: Well, guys, can you tell us just one more time about your big event that you have coming up?
• 29:58
  Speaker 2: Meet the Scotts January 25th, 1 to 3.
• 29:59
  Speaker 2: We have In-N-Out Burger Food Truck raffle tickets with baskets, goodies and from tickets to speakers and whatnot.
• 30:09
  Speaker 2: You get free baseballs and posters of our team.
• 30:12
  Speaker 2: You come out and get autographs.
• 30:16
  Speaker 2: I'll do the national anthem.
• 30:17
  Speaker 2: After that All the kids come on the field.
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: We'll have football and a bunch of little games for them to play in the outfield.
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: And I just want to say again I went last year and it was super, super fun.
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: I highly recommend you guys come out, bring your family.
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: It's a great fun day to spend the day.
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: So, guys, thank you so much for being here today.
• 30:34
  Speaker 4: Yeah, thank you for having me.
• 30:35
  Speaker 4: Thank you Happy to be here.
• 30:36
  Speaker 4: Go Scots.
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: That's been another episode of the Bubble Lounge.
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: I.