Inspiration in my life

Coach Ittner's Legacy

There have been many people that have inspired me in different kinds of ways whether that be my mom and the way she inspires me to be orderly with the way I live or my Grandma who preaches to never quit no matter what is thrown at us. There is one man specifically that has impacted my life for the better in so many ways, and that would be my high school baseball coach Matt Ittner. Coach Ittner coached me for 4 years nearly 6 days a week. He committed all of his time to the Cox high school team and I can take credit for the men he’s created as well as the state championship we won under his leadership. 

I first met coach Ittner during the summer coming into my freshman year of high school when I was volunteering for a Cox-run baseball kid camp that our program held every summer. Coach Ittner was a brand new coach at Cox, so we both were trying to adjust to the new scenery and understand the ways that things were going to be done. Coach Ittner immediately came in as a leader and ran this program as tight as a high school baseball coach could do it. Not only did he know so much about the game of baseball, but he also pushed us to be the best we could be in the classroom. He also ingrained the habits of showing up 15 minutes early to every practice and if you showed up any later than that, you were sent home for the day. Coach Ittner was strict, but he engrained life lessons that I have carried into my everyday life. Getting to know Coach Ittner at first was difficult due to the fact that there was so much for him to cover and catch up on like the entire unfamiliar varsity team he has never coached, field maintenance that needed attention, field renovations the field needed, and also a new locker room. Coach Ittner had a lot on his plate and our connection certainly came with time. 

After my freshman season, coach Ittner didn’t think I was ready to play varsity baseball yet, so under his guidance, I participated in extra work after practices with Ittner trying to prove to him how hard I was working to be on his team. Day in and Day out I worked so hard to find myself in the starting lineup. By the time my sophomore year came around, it was finally time that I should make my way up to the Varsity team. After a long talk with Coach Ittner, he wanted to start me on JV for the beginning of the season to see how I did. I was heartbroken by the news and didn’t know how to react. This is when coach Ittner changed my life for the better. I sat down in his office and he explained to me that no matter how hard it is to never stop working hard because with someone with my determination and work ethic before I knew it I would find myself in his lineup. I worked a day in and day out with Coach Ittner trying so hard to get better and I did. I was moved up to varsity halfway through my sophomore year and I was ecstatic. All the hard work I had put in was showing itself and the mentality that coach Ittner ingrained in my head of relentlessness, to control my emotions, to always keep my head high, to work with my teammates at all times to complete a task, and of course to be a great man to the community around me had all come together into one final play. Coach Ittner formed me and the rest of my teammates into champions, where later on we would end up winning the state championship under his name while he had only been at Cox high school for 4 years. 

Coach Ittner’s teachings have impacted me so much more than baseball and it’s something that I carry around with me every day. The integrity I have regarding my daily tasks I do at a high level because I know that I will get the greatest reward for hard work as coach Ittner taught me. These are life skills that I will carry into my career one day and allow me to be a better man altogether. The influence that Coach Ittner has over me is monumental in the way I act and am today and I could never owe him enough for what he did for me.