Andy Verke Jr.

5am alarm goes off, you want to hit snooze but you know you can’t because you still need to grab a snack before morning weights at 6. 5:45 am you’re in the gym stretching with the position guys because Coach Jones always says “if you’re not 15 minutes early, you’re late!”. It’s about 7:15 am and while people are starting to wake from their nights sleep you are in the empty cafeteria getting breakfast, showering, and getting ready for day of classes.

From 9-1pm you’re busy with classes and only 15 minutes in between each class to grab a small bite to eat. Class is done for the day but you still have to go back to your dorm room, change then head to the field for early hitting at 1:30.

For the next 3-4 hours you are dialed in on baseball and paying attention to the details. During those 3-4 hours you will have a bunt scrimmage, situational hitting scrimmage, batting practice, and conditioning. Star drills… The consequence of not paying attention to detail. So what is a star drill? It is when you start at home plate and run to the center field wall, back to home plate, down the right field line to the foul pole, across the outfield to the left field foul pole, and finally back to home in two minutes and 20 seconds or less.

It’s approximately 5:30pm and you are finally done with practice and have to head back to the dorms to get dinner, shower, and gather your things to go to the library. After your dinner you head to the library to study for test, do your homework, and complete any projects you have. It’s 11pm and the library is closing but you still have to finish some of your homework, so you go to the study room in the dorms and complete your homework for the night.

By the time you get done with your homework it’s 12:30 and you have to be up in four and a half hours to do it all again.

It takes a lot of discipline and sacrifice, but I wouldn’t change a thing.