CARTHAGE, ILLINOIS (WGEM) – For any high school team, senior year is usually a time for closing one chapter and starting a new one. But for two seniors on the Illini West baseball team, they aren’t entering this next stage alone.
Now with their high school days behind them, Chargers head coach Zack Burling is reflecting on what these players meant to the program.
“I’ve known Stephen [Sparks] since he was in fifth grade. Shawn and Chapin; I played against them 5th – 8th grade. Then we got to join forces when they became freshmen, so it’s been cool to see them blossom into the young men they are today,” Burling said.
He’s not the only one reminiscing on the last four years. Carter Chapin is one of those players going on to play college baseball, and he’s back to being a fresh face on a new team.
“When you start playing baseball, if you love it, you dream of playing in college. It’s nice to see all the hard work pay off. My younger years, I got to look up to the seniors. Being one this year it’s cool to see the underclassmen look up towards us and set an example by playing college baseball and having four of us go to college,” Chapin said.
For Stephen Sparks, some of his best memories in baseball have been with this team.
“My junior year we were pretty good. We ended with 5 losses on the year and 28 [wins]. We made it to the sectional championship and the goal this year was to go pretty far, but we struggled beating Macomb and that’s just how things go,” Sparks said.
Luckily for Sparks and Chapin, their time as teammates isn’t over yet. The two will go on to play at Carl Sandburg College, and Chapin says he’s glad to have a friend as they enter this new chapter.
“You’re always gonna have someone there that you’ve played with for your whole life, so it’ll be nice to have someone in my corner,” Chapin said.
Carl Sandburg Baseball has fall exhibition games in September, where both Sparks and Chapin plan to play next year.
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