HSBN Scholarship Essay Entry: Adam Montesino

Adam Montesino, #6, from Taravella, is a pitcher that graduates with the class of 2020. Adam is a three-year varsity letterman with the Trojans, and like many, saw his senior year get cut short. He details what he is going through and reflects on his time at Taravella in today’s scholarship essay competition.

Essay:

Hello, my name is Adam Montesino, three time varsity player for Taravella High School and one of the many seniors that are suffering from the Coronavirus pandemic. Playing baseball for almost 16 years now, growing up I always heard older ball players talking about their high school experiences, along with my older cousins telling me about their favorite senior year moments that will always stick with them through life.

As I reminisce on everything I have heard growing up, it just shatters my heart that not only me, but thousands of seniors that won’t be able to have the farewell tour that they deserve. Fortunate enough for myself, I am able to continue my athletic career and my love for baseball as I am looking forward to playing Division II baseball at Dominican College next year.

But, I feel for those seniors who are uncommitted and either are unsure of whether they are going to be able to play ball next year somewhere, or those who have decided that this is the end of the road for them, they may never be able to put on that uniform again and spike up for one last time.

Life has been tough during quarantine. I am able to roughly find a way to still continue working on my craft whether that is finding an open cage at a local park with two or three teammates of mine, or going over a friend’s house just to use his soft toss net that I can hit off a tee into. Not being able to go into the weight room and lift and get stronger with my other 35 teammates in our program is tough, but home workouts are my new reality now.

Being away from my brothers, my teammates, is one of the hardest things about this quarantine. Not being able to share my moments with them, even just sit at the lunch table together and be able to bond, are the things I miss. The chemistry we had on and off the field is unlike any other, which makes the cut off of our season so much worse.

It’s not only about how it affected me and the rest of the seniors, but my teammates lost their season as well. I consider them my family away from home.

Family in my house, during this Quarantine, has given me the opportunity to bond a bit more than we have been able to over the past years, with the endless hours of grinding, and doing homework after games at 1am, it opened my eyes on how much time I was sacrificing away from them.

What does baseball mean to me, you ask?

Baseball was my freedom away from the world around me. When the bell rang at 2:40 every day, I knew it was THAT time of the day when I entered that dugout, saw my best buds and it was time to strap it on and have some fun.

Inside those lines, I forgot about all my problems, no girlfriend, no school, no outside issues, just me and my teammates getting better at the game we love. When it came to game days, there was absolutely no better feeling than waking up that morning for school with my uniform already laid out, eating breakfast with butterflies in your stomach while all your teammates are getting hyped in the team group chat for today’s game.

What does baseball mean to me, you ask?

It gives me a chance, every single time I step in between those lines to play my heart out. My high school coach for my junior and senior year, Coach Giummule, always told us to practice and play every single game, inning, throw, or at bat like it is our last. Because in the end, you don’t know when it will be your last time ever playing the game you love.

As he would always say, the baseball gods are watching over you, but I guess the baseball gods couldn’t help us with this pandemic. And in this situation, I finally realized what he was saying. Our final home game against Highlands Christian was the last game of my high school career. I can say though, that we went out on a bang when we defeated them 12-0.

That, to me is my life inside quarantine, always thinking about what I could of done different to make my high school experience more memorable. I am proud to be a Trojan and to be surrounded by the players and coaching staff that helped me through everything. Thank you coaches Pat, Rob, Juan, Claude, and especially coach Giummule.

Editors Note: Seniors wanting to enter the competition, follow the link below:

HSBN Senior Essay Scholarship Competition

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