The weather outside looks gloomy and gray as a bolt of lightning shoots across the window and hits somewhere off in the distance. Thunder soon follows, shaking the building and causing everyone to react with “woah” and “wow, that was a big one.” Then, the coach enters the room after a long phone call with the other team. “Game’s been canceled,” head coach Andy Jakubowski says. 

Despite the hopes for Huntley High School’s baseball team to have the hope of playing on the home field, the weather and the environment ultimately decide the fate of the game. 

“We always come out and play our best game, and I would like to have a home game, but sometimes it just does not work out,” co-captain Ryan Bakes said.

But, despite the tough time in having a home game, the team has been able to hang their heads high and brush past it towards the light at the end. 

“We are starting to bond together even better now, I mean, we are really chill every single day and it is easy to see through our performance and spirits that we do the best we can do,” Co-captain Andrew Ressler said. 

Even more than bonding together when in and out of practices, games, and other activities, the team has been able to put together a very strong and stable stance toward how they view the games and other teams. Some teams always prove challenging, while others are still difficult but are easier to overcome. 

“We’ve played some good competition in terms of beating a good Stevenson team, a good Marist team, a good Maine South team, and all that is going to do is just get us ready for conference,” Jakubowski said. “We got a talented group and the ultimate goal is to control what we can and to continue to get better. If all the stars align and we execute what we need to do we have a pretty solid chance at going to state.”

More than just the team, the performance of each individual player also stands out above the rest. 

“We come out with a bunch of energy and we keep it the whole game,” co-captain Brayden Bakes said. “We ended up beating six teams and our energy just dominated the whole time. Everybody had energy all game it feels like.” 

While the start of the season might have been rough and to what some teams would consider a crushing blow to the spirit and morale of the team, the players each raise their heads up high, some laughing or cheering on each other. Because while they might not have had the chance at playing at the home field, they have left a mark on each field that they have had a game at.