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USF Baseball Blog No. 11 - Garrett Luippold
June 25, 2009
Sophomore left-hander Garrett Luippold blogs from Washington state, where he is pitching for the Spokane Riverhawks.
I'm currently playing summer ball up in Spokane, WA in the West Coast League; and from the experiences I have had thus far, I am greatly thankful and excited to have this opportunity. This year's team has many familiar and soon to be familiar faces to the WCC. Players from USF, Gonzaga, USD, and Pepperdine are on my team; they have all proved themselves great guys, even though they play for the enemies. I find myself enjoying my teammates and my coaches more and more every day I have with them because they are all welcoming and all have positive outlooks not on just baseball, but in matters off the field as well.
The team I play for is called the Spokane Riverhawks, coached by Barry Matthews (one of Coach Moore's former rivals who says he could still carve Moore up any day of the week...). Alongside him are two other coaches, one being fresh out of Gonzaga and the other a Gonzaga graduate with five years of minor league ball under his belt. With the baseball experience my coaching staff possesses, I see our team learning much about the game of baseball through different methods of teaching and environment.
Thankfully, I am not alone up here in Washington. I have Mr. Kyle Lawton alongside me for the ride, which is not only awesome because he is one of my boys from school ball, but he played here last summer. He has been a great outlet for non-athletic activities and events, showing me the ropes of Spokane and all the cool stuff to do when we have some days off. Lately we have been taking day trips up to Coeur d'Alene Lake in Idaho just thirty minutes away. One of our teammate's host family owns a lake house where we are always welcome to hang out. Three times now we have been up there to get after the water sports and beaches. From tubing, water skiing, to wake boarding, to babe watching has been the highlight of the lake adventures. From time to time we go river floating on big tubes where we travel downstream about five miles.
Baseball-wise, I love the competition up here. The league has some serious talent on every team, so there is always a challenge when I get the chance to toe the rubber. Of course our team is the best because I say so, but all the other teams are pretty good (except Matty Lu's team from last summer). Sorry Matty, but Moses Lake is brutal this year again, but whatever. But for real, I am having a great time getting some quality innings up here an working on my summer goals. So far I think I have been doing a pristine job of staying on it and AOEPing with every chance I get. I'm just mad that Abe isn't up here to again this summer. Mr. Love, you have a great opportunity to pitch against the one and only Abe.
Last but definitely not least, the O'Neil's (my host family) are awesome! My host dad John and mom Lori are some of the kindest people I have ever met and I will definitely be grateful all summer and the rest of my life for the support they show for me and for taking me into their home, as well as sharing their ten year old son to play catch with and teach. He is really into baseball, so he is always bugging me to toss it around with him. The family is at every home game and at some away games no matter if I pitch or not, which is a great deal knowing that they like the game.
I'm looking forward to the rest of the summer with my new friends and host family. Keep in touch boys and good luck with your summers. AOEP
