Summit High ninth grader Chris McElvain’s high school baseball career is off to a strong start. On August 30, Chris won the COPABE “AA” Pan American Championship as a member of the 15U National Baseball team.
“It was an amazing experience to be able to fulfill a dream of representing the USA on the 15U Baseball Team,” said Chris. “Winning gold was icing on the cake.”
Chris, who has been playing baseball since he was three years old, learned he had been selected to the 20-man roster on August 14. After playing three exhibition games, the team flew to Mexico for the tournament.
“I didn’t expect us to win every game while we were there, but we had such a strong team I did expect to have a shot at a medal,” said Chris. “Having the chance to play in the gold medal game was something that made our team work extra hard.”
Now that the 15U season is technically over, Chris is back doing what he loves: training for yet another baseball season. But he takes a lot of life lessons with him into his high school experience, as a baseball player and a young man.
“Now that I’m back home, it’s time to prepare during the off-season for the Summit High Baseball Team,” said Chris. “Being on this national team made me feel great. To know all of my practice and hard work helped me become one of only 20 on the team was very rewarding. While I was in Mexico, I learned that we have it very good in the USA. We played against kids that didn’t have the basic necessities. We are very fortunate to live in our country.”
