Thursday

Today was a very busy day for all of the guys.....they handled it very well and I think when we look back on things it will be one of the more enjoyable/impactful days.

We started with a workout at the local YMCA at 10:00. Some throwing, conditioning and a chance to lift weights in the weight room. It was a nice place and is the center of a lot of the athletic activities on the island.

After a brief lunch and free time period, we set off to do two clinics.

For anyone who hasn't been involved in doing camps or clinics it can be a long and time consuming day that takes a lot of energy. The team handled it incredibly well and put on two outstanding clinics for the kids.

The first one was offered to us the night before at our first clinic by the P.E. teacher at a larger Catholic High School in the city. We had 60 kids come out for an after school session. We had them rotate between Infield/Outfield/Hitting/Pitching stations and the players were 100% responsible for running their stations.

It was a great environment, with the band practicing in the parking lot for the Junkaroo (more on that tomorrow) and several of the kids who weren't involved in the clinic sitting by the field watching.

There were over 80 kids total for our 2nd camp at the baseball facility. We have had some kids come to all 3 of the camps, and definitely had some different kids come out for this clinic.

These kids here are so much different than the ones we come across during our camps throughout the year. They come out there and are so excited just to be on the field and around the college players. There typical response to any suggestion or question by the players is "yes sir" and they can't get enough of their instruction and attention. I think that we could have camp for 12 hours a day and they would stay out there all day.

It was an incredibly spirited clinic and several of the players were creative and came up with fun ways to teach the kids baseball skills. One great idea was Caleb Stertzer having the pitchers do a form of "knock out" with throwing strikes in a pitching drill. Once it got down to the final 4 players the whole group of 40ish pitchers was watching and cheering for their favorite guy. You really had to see it and it's too bad we don't have video of it.

Brent Kimbro gave a testimony after camp to the kids there and just like the night before with Nathan, the kids were very attentive and hung on every word that he had to say.

At our meeting tonight, Coach Atkinson shared a devotional and we heard from Zach, Derek, and Chuck about their 3 H's. You can imagine they are pretty tired and ready to head to bed after a long but productive day.

We are still working on the picture thing for the blog and hope to have a bunch of them in some form or another tomorrow afternoon.

Thanks again all of your prayer and for following our blog. It's a been a great trip so far and we are all looking forward to tomorrow.