Published June 26, 2020
By LIAM McCALL
My involvement in Melrose Little League has had a positive and ongoing impact in my life. It has helped me learn the importance and value of hard work, dedication, leadership and teamwork.
For example, when I started playing baseball, my skills were limited and weren’t as advanced as some of the other players on my teams. Instead of being discouraged by this, I practiced constantly, learned from my coaches, and worked hard on improving my game. As time passed, my pitching, hitting and fielding abilities improved and I became a valuable member of my teams, making all star squads and emerging as a leader.
Hard work and dedication to the sport have helped me develop a great love for the game and have allowed me to continue my baseball career playing at Melrose High School and on AAU travel teams.
Little League has also taught me the importance of being a strong and supportive leader. I was lucky to have many great coaches during my Little League career like Cory Thomas, Steve Tarpey, John DeCecca, Paul George, Bill Curran, my dad Tom and many more. They were excellent role models for me and showed me the importance of building a strong team and leading by example.
The lessons I learned through my coaches have helped me become a strong leader academically, as a member of the Melrose High School National Honor Society, and athletically, as a captain of the MHS cross country team.
I think that leadership and teamwork go hand in hand. As a sports captain at Melrose High, I have used the lessons I learned playing baseball to make sure that everyone who is participating feels involved and is treated like a valuable and contributing member of the team. I have learned that even little things, like cleaning up after meets, getting the course ready for running, showing up to team functions and cheering on your teammates during meets and practices all allow individuals to come together, work toward common goals and become a team. When this happens, everyone benefits as the team is stronger and more successful, and the experience is more fun and rewarding.
One final benefit I learned from Little League is the importance of volunteering and helping out. As part of my high school community service, I volunteered with MNLL, assisting with team practices, helping out with tryouts and working in the snack shack at Conant to help raise money for the program. Volunteering in these positions was helpful to the MNLL but it also benefitted me as I learned the importance and value of helping out and giving back.
To sum up, playing baseball with Melrose National was a big part of my life, started out my love for baseball and gave me many benefits that I will carry with me as I move on to college in September.
