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USF Summer Baseball Blog No. 15 - Stephen Yarrow
July 6, 2009
As our summer blog project continues, we hear from sophomore infielder Stephen Yarrow, who writes to us from Brewster, Massachusetts.
Hey everyone! This is Stephen Yarrow writing to you from the tiny town of Brewster, Massachusetts. I will be a junior this coming fall at USF so this is my second summer playing in a collegiate wood bat league. Where to begin? June 9th sounds about right. This is the day that I flew 3000 miles and six hours into Providence international airport. I was lucky enough to have already met my host family before this time. See, the host family I am living with had Dons in the past. Their first player was Tavo Hall in 2006 and 2007, and last year in 2008 they hosted Derek Poppert. Both Tavo and Derek made such good impressions on them that they wanted to stick with players from USF. During our Santa Clara series they came out to see Derek and check out San Francisco, and I was fortunate enough to meet them and have dinner with them. They are truly great people and during the summer their lives revolve and the ball player they are hosting. I could not ask anything more from them; sometimes they treat me better than I deserve to be treated. Every night I come home to a fabulous meal, and during the day they take me anywhere I want to go.
Now let's talk about the league. Well, the league is everything everyone says it is. Ten scouts watching BP everyday, fifteen or so by the time first pitch comes around. Advisors hand out packets of info about their companies. It truly is a great experience. I would not say it's the purest form of baseball but it definitely is one of the most interesting forms I have ever been a part of. The other day our whole team had to take a test for the Anaheim Angels to see if we were drafted by them, how we would fit into their organizations. Just on our team I know at least a hand full of players who already have advisors. It is an experience most people only dream of, and I am very lucky to have this opportunity.
Our team is made up of people from all across the country, and we have pretty good chemistry so far. We have many players from California, and quite a few from our conference, so we all relate to each other very well. Our coaching staff is headed by UCSB pitching coach and recruiting coordinator Tom Myers, who is very knowledgeable about the game, and seems to be a great coach. As a team we started out slow but lately we have been coming along, and could be a force to be reckoned with soon. I hope everyone is enjoying their own summer ball experiences and I can't wait to see everyone in August. Have a good rest of the summer!
