Eye on the Prize
By Randy Gee, Staff Writer
Despite being an accomplished baseball player at Galileo who has won a number of awards including: player of the year last year and all-city three years, senior Dylan Nelson is still hungry for more. As the leader of the varsity baseball team, Dylan plans to lead his team to the championship game to beat the defending champs, Washington.
With the experience that Dylan has gained over the past three years, he has stepped up to become the leader of the team. As a leader, he helps guide the inexperienced players, giving them tips and advice during practice. Senior, John Chen has been on the team for only one season and seeks help from Dylan whenever he can. “He helps out a lot, he teaches, and gives advice to the players that need the help,” John says.
Aside from giving advice to other players, some of his responsibilities as a captain also include getting players to show up to practice and work hard, helping teach the players, improve on their skills and to be a leader to the players this upcoming season. “Basically, I’m like the assistant coach with Coach Papa, but also a player as well,” Dylan says.
Not only does Dylan help with the players, he helps with the coaches because one of the assistant coaches decided not to coach this season. “He knows enough baseball to be trusted and to help players on what they need to do. He is dedicated, certainly one of the best players I have ever coached and he keeps the team focused, I expect him to win another MVP award,” says Coach Papa.
Dylan’s attributes his success to playing baseball since he was five years old. He practices both during school and on the weekends with his dad and his brother on his throwing and hitting skills. Dylan says, “I never thought practice so much on and off the field would help me so much, I guess practice really does pay off.”
Even though the chances are really low that he will be drafted out of high school, he plans to continue to play baseball in the future and hopes to play for the Minor Leagues. “I want to play for a junior college, and then get drafted to the minor or major leagues and see what goes on from there,” he says. Junior colleges are already asking him to play for their school and even recruiting him, such as College of San Mateo, College of Marin and Skyline, but he is still unsure of what junior college he wants to play for.
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