Why I Love Fastpitch – Carter Haddon
Why I Love Fastpitch
Carter Haddon
My name is Carter. I am seventeen years old and I play in the U20 division for house league and Select fastpitch with East Gwillimbury Minor Softball Association (EGMSA). I’ve been playing this game since I was three years old and the second I stepped on the field as a young kid I fell in love with it.
I am a catcher for the U20 Select team and I’ve been catching since I started playing ball. At first, I simply thought it was cool to put on all of the gear… I felt like a superhero or a samurai of some sort. But over the years as my game progressed, I not only fell in love with the game but I fell in love with the position as well. Working with the pitchers to try and fool the hitters, throwing runners out at second base and making bang-bang plays at the plate make me feel like that superhero I imagined I was as a kid.
This game has taught me so much. I feel a responsibility to my team and the organization I represent every time I step on the diamond to make them proud and show them that all of the hard work and faith that they put into me pays off in the end. My team, the guys I go to battle with every weekend, mean the world to me. I truly love these guys. Our coaches have been able to deliver us a consistent message that their job isn’t to make us better players, it’s to make us better people. I think that’s a message that really resonates with our group and this organization as a whole. Winning tournaments and having success on the diamond is always great and we’ve had plenty of that, but being able to see the personal growth within myself and my teammates has been even better. We have all grown into phenomenal young men who carry ourselves with a confidence and classiness that we wouldn’t have inherited without this game.
This game has also provided me with many tremendous opportunities. As a twelve year old kid looking to make some pocket money so I could buy baseball cards I signed up to be an umpire. I saw it as a way to make some money and also be at the diamond longer. I figured I was most likely already there at a practice or a game. Why not make some money while I’m at it? I umpired for three years mostly working T-ball, U7 and U9 games. Looking back on it now, those three summers were probably the best thing I could’ve done for myself. Umpiring created a launchpad into the workplace for me. I learned responsibility, work ethic, how to de-escalate a hostile situation, interpersonal skills, confidence, reliability, teamwork, honesty and many more critical skills that I have continued to utilize through my young life. EGMSA offers ways to get into umpiring through clinics and courses and I found the job to be fun, exciting and extremely beneficial.
I owe much of my personality and personal beliefs, ethics and traits to the game of fastpitch. The coaches, players and organization has been amazing to me and I will forever love this game. So, I urge any parent or young player who is on the fence about joining this great game to give it a shot. I guarantee you will fall in love with the atmosphere and the benefits that this game has to offer.
