The fall baseball season has come and gone, but it provided players with experience for the upcoming spring season.This year, Roman Rassikhin joined the fall team. He always enjoyed baseball, but he never played until this year.

We asked Coach Dawidczik what he thinks of new players joining the team.

“The biggest disadvantage is a player’s skill level. Participating against experienced players poses not only a safety issue but it is also hard to compete.” 

In order to get players ready to play, the coach thinks it’s better for the new players to play in the fall instead of the spring.

  “At the end of the fall season beginning players have received a ton of reps and have been coached just like the experienced players, so the growth hopefully will be that they have learned the basic skills and the rules of the game.” said Dawidczik

Rassikhin started playing baseball because he always had a deep interest in the sport. The more Rassikhin learned and watched, the more he wanted to play and participate in the sport. When Rassikhin saw someone hit a ball with a bat into the crowds, he wanted to see himself do it.

Even though Rassikhin has never played a sport in his life, he enjoyed playing baseball this fall with his new teammates. Nobody is bringing him down and when he does something wrong, instead they bring him up and encourage him. They provide him with all the support he needs and he has been given loads of advice from them. 

There are many challenges that come with playing baseball for the first time, but that all depends on what you play.

“Personally I bat, so it’s different for me.” Rassikhin said

What a lot of players find difficult about batting is to not swing at every ball you see. Pitchers might find it challenging to learn a new pitch. A third baseman may find it difficult to throw accurately to first base. The fall ball season lets new players get help from their coaches and teammates.

Rassikhin definitely sees himself playing more in the future and plans to play during the spring season.. So far he has been having a great time with his teammates and coaches. 

“They’re helpful, they’re funny, and if I had to choose between my current coaches and some of the best coaches in the world, I’d choose my current coaches.”

 Even though Rassikhin has been struggling with hitting, his coaches have helped him with everything that will make him a better player.

New players have the biggest challenge out of everybody for learning how to play at the high school level. Many students playing fall baseball have participated in the game prior to getting to high school, but they still have a lot to learn. 

Rassikhin is showing that you don’t need to have past experience with sports to learn a new sport and enjoy it. Come out and support our baseball team this spring. The first game will be on March 11th, come out and support our Del Campo Cougars!