A quintet of Cougars were selected to compete in the annual Coaches USA All-Star Baseball and Softball games held at James Madison University Veterans Memorial Park in Harrisonburg, Virginia.
This special all-star series honors seniors in the Shenandoah Valley and the Mountain State.
East Hardy’s Madison Strosnider played in the Coaches USA All-Star Softball Game for the Mountain team and Pendleton County’s Jaiden Mitts was on the Valley squad.
East Hardy Baseball’s Evan Hamilton, Mason Hamilton and Shayne Sisler were named to the Coaches USA All-Star Baseball’s Mountain squad and the Cougars’ Patrick Mills competed for the Valley team.
This is a Christ centered event with special speakers and prayer for the teams.
“I was very honored to be selected to play in the Coaches USA All-Star Game. It was a great experience getting to play one more game and meeting new people. They did not necessarily have Bible study, but they had a couple speakers come in and give their life story and tell us how they found God. My faith helped me so much just because God is someone you can always talk to and I do my own prayer before every game just to talk to God and ask him to watch over us and let us play to the best of our abilities. My favorite Bib le verse is John 3:16. I know a lot of people use it, but it is just because it is so powerful. It was strange playing against Patrick, but I still made sure to get to talk to him some through the game. We told him we would let him hold [trophy] it since he didn’t win just to mess with him,” East Hardy senior Shayne Sisler remarked.
The Mountain Baseball team emerged as the Coaches USA champions 5-2, but the Cougars trio on that team let their teammate Patrick Mills on the Valley squad hold the trophy to join in on the joy felt in Harrisonburg.
“We felt very honored, especially from a school smaller than most of the others. It was a great experience, because we got to play with some talented teammates that we’ve played with on other teams. Winning made it even better. It’s always fun to play baseball. Jason Stulimiller spoke to all of us the evening before the game about being influencers and showing God’s love in all we do. Faith has guided us tremendously! We are learning to trust in his plan for our life, without him we couldn’t do any of this including baseball. Our favorite Bible verses are: Philippians 4:13 (Evan) and Joshua 1:9 (Mason). Kinda weird not having him (Patrick) in our dugout. Shayne told Patrick to hold it (trophy),” East Hardy seniors Evan and Mason Hamilton commented.
