Life of Wry

Awards. They come in all shapes and sizes.

I’d like to say I understand this thing called The All City Sports Awards, but I really don’t. This is what I do know: Peter got one.

I also learned a little from information I gleaned from the promotional materials we received:

• This is the 7th annual.
• The Sacramento River Cats and SportsStars Magazine came up with, and sponsor, the award.
• Recipients were nominated by SportsStars Magazine, coaches and athletic directors, they say.
• Awards are presented to the top competitors in 25 high school sports–both men’s and women’s–in the region, a geographical area that includes about 200 high schools.
• A total of 400 athletes were recognized this year (an average of about 16 athletes per sport).. though I noticed some sports had lots of athletes recognized (like baseball, which had 35) and some had relatively few (like girl’s rugby, which had 4).
• Davis High had 28 athletes that made the list from 13 different sports. There were a lot of sports (12) in which Davis had no recipients. Some Davis athletes got awards in two sports.
• The Davis baseball team had THREE players named to the so-called All-City team: Peter, Ryan Kreidler and Hunter Jury.
• Athletes received a certificate, a swag bag, and a letterman’s jacket patch.

Yesterday morning was the ceremony out at Raley Field. I would guess about a third to a half of the honored recipients showed up to be recognized. The certificates had been mailed already.

There was a master of ceremony who talked about the award and then went on for quite awhile about the balancing act that is high school sports–especially what it takes to be both a successful athlete and a responsible student. I thought his comments were pretty good… especially those comments I could hear over the power vacuum cleaner a guy was using on the field–to pick up what I’m not sure–and the music blaring on the PA system behind us. We also had as a king sized distraction the River Cats players who came out toward the end of the awards presentation to warm up on the field.

Really??

That aside, it was a lovely, if very simple, presentation: One by one, sports would be called out and the athletes from that sport would walk to the front and stand atop the dugout. The emcee would go down the line of kids and ask them to state their name, high school and plans for competing (or not) in college. The responses were impressive (those you could hear)…. everything from no plans yet to great schools like Notre Dame, Columbia, University of Chicago, Cal, UCLA, Stanford… and of course UC Santa Cruz.

Here are our guys…  Peter (with Hunter looking on):

Ryan:

About 20 of the 35 baseball guys were on hand to accept their award. It was very fun to see a lot of the kids we’ve played against in our league, like Jack Cosca and Jack Wolger from Jesuit; Dylan Carlson, Aaron Wong, and Ryan Robards from Elk Grove; and Zachary Tresemer and Isaiah Morales from Franklin. That was it from the big bad Delta League. I can’t remember if all of those guys were present, but a lot of them were. We also saw kids from Oak Ridge, Whitney, Vintage, and Yuba City–all teams we’ve played this season, but not in our league. Plus some schools I’d never even heard of.

Anyway, the baseball portion of the program was the real highlight, and it was VERY nice to see Peter up there among the seriously talented ball players selected. I am sure he was singled out for his pitching stats, and as I’ve mentioned before, stats are an imperfect measure of one’s value on a team.  I think he felt slightly out of place among some of those guys, but he also felt really honored and flattered to be there. He wouldn’t say all that, but it was evident.

We were pleased for him, no matter what. He does do a great job of balancing school and sports. He does work hard at baseball. He has stuck with the game and has competed at a high level for thirteen years. He is a good teammate. His coaches have always liked him. And he does have great stats this year … more importantly, he has contributed to Davis’ exceptional record and phenomenal season in this–his final year of baseball. I could never ask for more than that. He’s not a Cal commit, but he can be proud of his participation and contributions–over the years, absolutely, but particularly in his senior year.

So hell yeah. Good job, Peter. Well earned.

Here is one more picture. These guys are track and field stars. The two Davis kids there are Willie Hall, whom we know from Peter’s farm league baseball team, when his dad Tom was one of Peter’s coaches, and Michael Vernau, who was recognized in both track and cross country. The guy at the mic was the only guy who used his time to thank his mom (Mother’s Day), which got a rousing ovation from the crowd. Nice kid!

And that was that.

This is the certificate, and the magazine that makes the award…