Members of the varsity baseball team enjoyed time on the beach as well as the opportunity to play several games against challenging teams in Florida before the regular season started. The trip was scheduled to coincide with MHS’ spring break.
The Marsaline
The Marshall High School baseball team took a trip to Cocoa Beach, Florida, over spring break to play five baseball games. Head coach Paul Alberson said he likes the extra games the Owls get on this trip.
“Going to Florida gets us games early in the season that we may not get in Missouri,” Alberson said. “It is also nice to give our kids the opportunity to play against teams from Pennsylvania, Florida and Ohio,”
Sophomore Tashaun Edmund said the team did fundraisers in order to be able to pay for the trip.
“The whole team sold raffle tickets for us to be able to go,” Tashaun said.
Junior Jayden Edmund said the bus trip was pretty rough, however. The Owls were originally supposed to travel on a much larger bus than they did, but a situation came up where they were stuck on a bus much smaller.
“The bus ride was not the best part about the trip,” Jayden said.
“It was pretty small, but it was fun riding there and back with the team,” Tashaun said.
Tashaun enjoyed the many things to do on the trip.
“I liked going to the beach and to the shops down there with the team,” he said.
Jayden liked the team bonding.
“My favorite part of the trip was hanging out with the team,” Jayden said.
Despite losing their games, the Owls got some valuable playing time in.
“The losing part stunk, but we also played some really good teams,” Jayden said.
The team struggled against the competition while in Florida.
“The performance wasn’t great, but they stayed in and battled,” Tashaun said.
The Owls had some free time in between all the games.
“We would either go to the beach or walk down the strip that was near the hotel,” Jayden said.
Alberson likes the team chemistry that happens during the trip.
“My biggest joy of taking our team to play in Florida is seeing the faces of our guys that have never seen the ocean. The team bonding that goes on this trip is priceless,” Alberson said. “Between spending a week in a room with your teammates or the long bus ride is so valuable to building the team culture that we want.”
The Owls stayed in rooms of four.
“They tried to put some friends together in rooms and put one group leader for each room,” Tashaun said.
The Owls obtain some advantages while playing in Florida.
“We got to play some good competition and get an extra five games in before the season started,” Jayden said.
“We learned how to play with each other and got some good games in,” Tashaun said.
The Owls are considering going back to Florida to play some extra games before the season starts for next year, too.
“I think that we should go back,” Tashaun said. “It really helps the team bond with each other.”
“I would like to go back next year, but I wouldn’t like not winning the games,” Jayden said.
“We are planning to go back next year,” Alberson said. “We plan on returning to Destin this time. Our experience there was better than at Cocoa Beach. The biggest difference is the 12-hour drive vs. the 18-hour drive we had this year. A lot of work goes into taking a trip like this, and we will start having meeting to organize everything this summer.”