Kyle and Sports

   Growing up, one thing me and my sister always did was sports, and Kyle was no exception. The kid is hands down the best athlete in our family, and definitely the most dedicated. The past few summers have been my off season for college softball, and nearly every morning Kyle would go up to the fields and hit with me. He'd have the car packed some mornings before I was even awake! But he's always been my biggest supporter at games. Maybe it's the sound the bat makes when it hits the ball, or the cheers that come from the dugouts, but he loves it. He's also been known for running out onto the field after games to break it down with the team.

Me and Kyle at Senior Day

   He's also set on the routine of going to my dad's Friday night and Sunday morning softball leagues. He has matching jerseys and sits on the bench during games, and is always the first one at the gate to give high fives and yell after innings. Softball is something special to Kyle, and you can often see him in the back yard hitting softballs off a tee or swinging at them like golf balls, but still getting some solid distance on them. He swings one of my dad's slow pitch bats like it's nothing, so he's pretty strong. 

   Kyle is pretty involved with Special Olympics and the Achievement Centers for Children, which hosts other sports leagues in the Cleveland area. He does basketball, soccer, baseball, and bowling, and has done track. He loves basketball, and has qualified for States a few times because of the skills challenge where he excels in dribbling and speed drills. 

   One of his favorite sports though has to be golf. He'll go to the driving range with my dad and hit buckets on buckets of balls, and he hits them pretty far. Putting, however, is not his thing, because he likes to hit the ball as hard as he can, so you can see where that would be a problem. 

   Watching Kyle play sports is one of my favorite things. He never has any worries when he's playing, he thoroughly enjoys every second of it (until someone steals the ball from him in basketball), and it makes me wish sometimes that sports were just as simple as having a good time and just playing. The smile he gets when he's running the bases or gets a strike in bowling is priceless, and watching him be care free and happy out on the field is one of the most inspirational things I could experience. When he comes to my games I know that he doesn't care if I went 0-3 on the day or hit a home run. He's just happy to be around the sport, and be with the people he loves.

Story Time:

Here's the promised driving story. So my dad is in a golf league and took Kyle out to the course with them one day. When my dad was up, Kyle would sit in the golf cart. What my dad didn't know is that Kyle figured out where the gas pedal was on the golf cart, so during my dad's turn the kid took off driving down the golf course and my dad had to chase him, all while Kyle was laughing his head off and somehow managing to drive in a straight line. No worries though, my dad caught him and Kyle was no longer allowed to sit in the driver's seat of the golf cart.