By Staff
In today's sports section, you will find an article about five young men with the Jefferson Davis Community College baseball team.
These five men, four walk-ons and one transfer, all received scholarships from JDCC head baseball coach Darrell Blevins.
That is quite an accomplishment.
All have the willpower, dedication and other necessary characteristics to risk trying out for the team.
Not only did these guys make the team, but they now have scholarships to help them in their college careers.
College can be very expensive. Believe me, I know. I am thankful to have parents and other family members to have helped me in my college years.
I just made my first of many student loan payments this past week, and I even had scholarships to help me out, but the price of college is not the reasoning behind this column this week.
Because of their hard work and dedication, these guys have put themselves in this situation and have now earned a scholarship for it.
Coach Blevins had nothing but kind words to say about these players and said that all of his players are good guys who will represent the city and school well.
Also, the players had nothing but kind words in return for being awarded the scholarships.
I relate this event to the movie “Rudy,” in which the main character - based on real-life Notre Dame player Daniel “Rudy” Ruettiger. Despite being “too small” and not having good enough grades, “Rudy” worked his way through junior college and eventually played for the Fighting Irish.
If you have never seen the movie, I recommend it to be seen. It is one of the best sports movies of all time, and even if you are not a big sports fan, I think you will like it.
When I talked to the players Friday about receiving the scholarships from coach Blevins, many said about the same thing.
Their similar comments could have come from nerves and not knowing what to say. (Believe me, I also know about this. Being interviewed is a hard thing, and I now know how it feels to be on the other side of the question.) But I truly believe they said what they felt.
All of them talked about dedication, hard work, staying focused and other things.
Their words reminded me of coach Paul “Bear” Bryant's quote: “If you believe in yourself and have dedication and pride and never quit, you'll be a winner. The price of victory is high - but so are the rewards.” 
Congrats to these guys and I wish you the best in your upcoming season and all that you do.
Also, I want to wish all area teams the best of luck in their games this week and until Sunday when we meet again, God bless.