Personal Statement
My name is Santiago Songco. I attend PAREF Southridge High School, Manila. I am currently taking up Accountancy, Business and Management or ABM for my senior high school strand. I maintained a 91 average the whole year while dedicating my life to baseball for the last 2 years.
Playing sports has always been what I wanted to do ever since I was young, at the time I did not know what sport yet, but it was clear that my passion for sports outgrew all of the other things I liked doing. I started off playing basketball at the age of 2 with my family for fun and then transitioned into playing baseball and football at the same time. Once I hit grade 1 I decided to stick with football up to the 6th grade. From there on I played basketball for two years, during this time I played against some of the nations best teams, this developed my killer mentality to always never settle for less, as our team was considered to be a "garbage team". The end of my 9th grade year Covid hit us, I fell out of love with what I had loved doing which was sports, but a thought occurred, why not play baseball again.
Since 2020 I have been playing baseball non stop, developing my fielding, hitting, strength and speed. I knew this time it was different, because not only was I excelling at it, I was falling in love with the game. My first year back, I made varsity on one of the most prestigious schools you can go to for baseball in the Philippines, I got more fluid with my defense and hitting and put on 20lbs of muscle since returning to the sport (145-165). Since the country was considered to be one of the most unsafe countries in the world (due to Covid), my teammates and I had made a plan to do separate training on the days where our team did not meet for inter-squad games and full day practices. Outside of my regular baseball training, I strength train, focusing on deadlifts, squats and bench presses .This led to a big jump in my career as a baseball player. My exit velocity is now up to 82, My 60 yard had been hand timed at 6.8 and my overall game had just gotten better.
I stand at 5'10 ,165 lbs. I am an athletic Middle infielder and outfielder. I take pride in my speed and on my defensive game. I am an energetic player who loves leading by example, I play aggressive, but at the same time calm so that I may use my head due to the complexities of baseball.
The love and passion I have for the game is ever-growing and has been growing since I started playing again. I am committed to working on my craft and I will be more than grateful to learn new things about baseball and myself. Here in the Philippines we have a great little league and high school system, but after that there is nothing and I want more than that. I want to be an example for my friends, my family and my country that anything is possible, as long as you want it and work for it. I believe that I would be a great asset to your team because of my skill and determination as a player and as a person. All I want to do is play baseball at the next level and if given the chance I will not disappoint.
Thank you for taking the time to read. Looking forward to getting in touch with you all.
Santiago
