Ranes Denman '25 Recruiting Profile

Playing baseball has taught me a couple of really important life lessons.  First, I have learned how to fail and not let it stop me from trying again. Some players I know are very emotional about their game, going from happy to sad in the course of one at bat, and they are done for the rest of the day.  When I started pitching I was like this.  I could be having a good outing and then hit a batter and after that I was in my head, basically done on the mound and it even affected my hitting. Over time and with many bad at bats, bad games, I have gained the ability to take an L and bounce back from it. I can definitely translate this lesson to my school work and the rest of my life outside baseball.

I have also learned how to take constructive criticism.  Some of my coaches have not been very nice. They would get their point across by yelling, and I would spend the season trying not to draw attention to myself. But then I made a really good team whose coach was a yeller. I wanted to do well on that team and knew I couldn’t let my fear get in the way of being able to take coaching from this man who had a lot to teach me. So I learned how to ignore the tone and just listen to the message.  That ability helps in other aspects of life. People may be communicating with me using a lot of emotion but I don’t have to react to their emotion, I can just take the message, learn the lesson. 

I want to position myself to be able to play baseball in any program, including at an academically selective school, so my school work is very important to me.  Even if I do not end up playing baseball at the college level, I intend to go to college to prepare for the next stage of my life.  I like learning, especially history, and could see myself coaching baseball and teaching high school history.