My favorite team growing up was the Cincinnati Reds. Living within 10 minutes of the ball park I went to as many games as possible growing up as long as they didn't conflict with my baseball schedule.
As a freshman at Miami I started of as a reliever for the first few games and quickly moved into the rotation as the Saturday started for conference play. That year was very successful, I was name a Freshman All-American as well as 2nd Team All-MAC.
I made the Dixie Heights High School baseball team as an 8th grader and went on to have a very successful career. I was all state both my junior and senior years leading our team 3 district championships and 1 regional championship in 2001 which hadn't happened since 1991. My number has since been retired at Dixie Heights and a banner hangs from the outfield fence with my name and number on it.
Miami awarded me with the teams Pitcher of the year as well as Rookie of the year. My career at Miami only got better from there, I went on the Cape Cod baseball league for 2 consecutive summers where I did well and also to help lead our Miami team to both MAC regular season and tournament champions in 2005. I finished my career at Miami holding a few conference records including career innings pitched and by getting drafted by the Florida Marlins in the 10th round.