Yesterday I heard from another former player who achieved some post-season honors. Her name is Lindsay Meverden, and she’s a sophomore at Lakes Community High School. She told me that she was named a North Suburban Conference all-conference honorable mention.

What’s cool about this (to me) is she then asked me what that meant. So many players these days are focused on their personal accolades and achievements instead of team goals. It’s nice to see one who is simply playing her heart out for the love of the game.

There’s also another bit of inspiration here. At the beginning of the season Lindsay was pretty much a bench player — a backup catcher in her first year on varsity. She was struggling a bit at the plate too. But we got together and worked on getting her hitting back on track. I told her if she could hit that the coaches would find a place on the field for her.

Sure enough, she started hitting, and then she started playing more. She was eventually installed at first base, learned the position (she hadn’t played there since 10U ball) and now has received some post season honors.

Once again it points out that it doesn’t matter where you start the race, only where you finish it. Work hard, persevere and good things will happen.

Congratulations, Lindsay. You’ve earned it.