07/12/2021
This is a very sentimental post....... My name is Matthew mccroskey. I grew up in Granite Falls and Hudson area of Caldwell county. I grew up in a broken home and pretty poor. I am a product of a very popular this day and time scenario, fatherless home. Being that baseball is in the water or something in this area, I fell in love with the sport at a young age. Clothed and equipped with yard sale status I gave it my all. I made a few Hudson all-star teams, back then that was travel baseball. And by God we were really good and very tough. I also worked my ass off and made school teams at Hudson Middle and South Caldwell Spartan Baseball I had coaches like Myron Day, Jim Cooke, terry Henthorne, Jeff Parham, it was basic training, and war! I ended up going into the straight Labor Field after high school. Some years later had a son, and when I began pitching him balls at 3 years old and he line drove them at my head I knew there was a long journey ahead of us. At 5, 6, 7 years old he was down and ready in the defensive position, scooping up balls and making plays on the field. I witnessed him hitting some line drive Gap shots and in the park home runs at 8, 9, and 10, years old and mostly as his coach. I knew the world had morphed drastically into a whole new level of athleticism. Travel ball had taken over the world! When I realized the talent my son had, a few of the coaches that I knew and parents and their sons knew they had some talent as well, we decided to form a travel baseball team. Paul williams, Josh jones, and I ventured off into the world of travel baseball together. We formed a travel team called the Swat. It was an awesome new adventure, very challenging, and a rough start to say the least! We ended up with a couple runners up and a championship or two. The main thing is we did manage to have some fun, we managed to achieve personal development for each of our kids and other teammates, we had some different ideas and opinions, so we all went are different ways. I decided to continue with coaching and managing a travel baseball team, I then formed an independent travel baseball team called the American outlaws. We had a couple of seasons together, we had a lot of rough patches, but at some point or another we pulled together and played some amazing baseball and have some success! We continued with our travel baseball organization and expanded by forming teams within the wheelhouse, and that's when launch City wheelhouse began. Between our team and the other couple of teams that formed with us we began experiencing more success and grew drastically! The Wheelhouse, Chris Becker, took us under his wings years ago, and was always so good to us and it was awesome! We kept expanding with the Wheelhouse and then formed just wheelhouse Sports Academy baseball and softball teams. This organization has grown tremendously and we have experienced a lot of success and seen a lot of ball players personally develop in great ways. There has been some unhappy families, over these last 10 years of coaching baseball, that's something that will always be a constant. But the many, many kids and families that have benefited from this sport and our devotion to coaching and helping them turn from boyhood to manhood, it's priceless! After 4 years of coaching and managing travel baseball, taking on many private lessons in between, and all together about a decade of coaching children in baseball, I am finally retiring. I know I'm not some huge Sports guru icon, I know I'm not some Semi-Pro or college level or even high school level coaching material. But I can affirm that I have made a positive impact in quite a few young boys and young men's lives through the sport of baseball. If I could go back I would do it all again! Very special thanks to, Myron Day, Terry Henthorne, Gary hamby, Jeff Parham, Fred Lanford, for inspiring me and being somewhat of a father role model in my life! Now my son plays for a couple of you! And it is so worth this whole crazy journey we just went through! Thanks to a few great friend/coaches and good times! Patrick Cobb, James Haas, and Matt Barlow..... Thank you to a couple of very dedicated assistant coaches.....Matt Flanagan And Dan Smith..,..Also a special thanks to the Wheelhouse sports academy and Chris becker!
