Since I was a kid, all I wanted to do was play sports. Baseball took me from Victoria to a junior college in a Kansas town of 1,500 people, and then to Quincy University, a Division II program. Along the way I had coaches who doubted me and one who believed in me when I didn't.
I always loved the coaching side of the game. SPECIFIC is how I want to give back: a community where athletes push each other to get better, learn from one another, and see how far they can go.
Dylan, founder
Read Dylan's full story
Since I was a kid, all I wanted to do was play sports. When I was young, I wanted to play soccer, but my mom said, “Oh no, you’re not playing soccer,” because she didn’t want to sit outside in the rain and snow. She suggested baseball instead, and I said, “Okay, I’ll try it.” I ended up falling in love with it.
I don’t remember much about my first six years of baseball, but when I was about 12, we moved to Victoria, and I started playing more competitive baseball. That was when I realized I wanted to do this every day.
When you’re young, you play a little bit of every position. I was a catcher for a while, but I got scared of getting hurt, so I stopped. Then I played outfield, but I got way too bored. That was when I started playing infield, and that became my main position through high school.
Once I got into high school baseball, I had a lot of ups and downs. During my first two years, I improved, received some good coaching, and worked my way up from team to team. Then, in Grade 11, I tried out for the premier team, which was the best team in our city. I didn’t make it.
I went down to a lower level, where I felt I was better than the players around me. I kept working harder because I wanted to earn a spot on the best team. During one practice, I pushed myself so hard that I threw up. At the time, I didn’t think much of it because I felt like I was just working hard.
Later that month, I got a call from the premier team’s coach. Someone had gotten hurt, and he asked if I wanted to join the team for the season. Of course, I accepted. I told my other coaches that I was leaving and moving up.
The head coach wished me the best of luck and was happy for me, but the younger coach had the opposite reaction. He told me I wasn’t cut out for that level, that I wasn’t good enough, and that I wouldn’t get to play. He even pointed to me throwing up during the workout as a reason I couldn’t handle it. I thanked him for the opportunity, left it at that, and never heard from him again.
That year, I played on and off because I was one of the younger guys. I was okay with that because I liked being around older, better players. They gave me something to work toward, and I wanted to push myself to reach their level and eventually compete for their spots.
In Grade 12, I played a lot more. Between pitching and playing infield, I appeared in more than half of our games. I didn’t really like pitching, but my coach would put me on the mound late in games after I had played infield all day.
I received an offer to play for a new university team in Victoria, but things changed during COVID, and I was told I wouldn’t be able to play on the team. Fortunately, I had the opportunity to return for another year of high school baseball. That ended up being my best year of high school baseball.
I was playing every day and hitting above .400, which felt amazing. Then, my coach started playing me less and less. I went from playing four games a weekend to playing one or two. My confidence took a big hit, and I started playing worse.
We ended up making the playoffs. In our elimination game, we were losing, and I was due up for what turned out to be our final at-bat. My coach pulled me for a player who still had two years of high school left. That was when my frustration boiled over. I was furious.
After that, I received an opportunity to play at a junior college in Kansas, in a small town of about 1,500 people. It wasn’t a great school or a strong team, but it was an opportunity to keep playing the game I loved.
I had been promised the chance to be a two-way player, meaning I would both hit and pitch. What I didn’t know was that my coach wanted me to focus only on pitching. That was new for me. I had never been very interested in pitching and didn’t know much about it.
I switched to being a sidearm pitcher, which was a difficult adjustment because I had never thrown that way before. I kept working to become the best pitcher I could be, but I struggled. My first year wasn’t great, although I was improving.
I went back for my second year and started the season really well. I had a 0.00 ERA through my first 12 appearances, which felt amazing. Then, things started going sideways. I lost confidence, started hitting batters, and wasn’t pitching well.
During one game, I struggled early but managed to get out of the inning. Afterward, my coach pulled me out of the dugout and started yelling in my face. He told me, “You are one of the best pitchers in this league. I have so much confidence in you to go out there and do amazing things, so you better have that same confidence in yourself.”
Later that year, I got a call from Quincy University, a Division II school with a very good baseball program. They offered me a spot on the team, and that was where I spent my final two years of college baseball.
During those two years, I learned a lot of valuable lessons about being both a player and a coach. I graduated with a 3.7 GPA and a bachelor’s degree in marketing.
Throughout my baseball career, I always loved the coaching side of the game and felt I had a good understanding of it. I enjoyed helping people when they needed advice, and it felt good to see them improve. At the same time, I knew coaching often didn’t pay much, so I started thinking about how I could turn that passion into something bigger.
That was where the idea for my app began. I wanted to build something that would help younger athletes grow, improve, and fall in love with their sport the way I did. I also wanted it to support older athletes who hadn’t had coaches who believed in them, helped them develop, or encouraged them to pursue college sports.
I want this app to help athletes of different ages have fun, push themselves to improve, and see how far they can go. I want them to meet amazing people and have the kinds of experiences that made such a difference in my life.
Baseball has taught me so much about patience, working to become a better version of myself, and being there for my teammates. That is what I want to build: a community where athletes push each other to get better, learn from one another, and find opportunities to do something good for themselves and others.