Our National Champions

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Over the summer and at the beginning of the school year, some very exciting events occurred for our St. Paul’s community. William Rollings (8th) and Nash Beenen (6th) traveled all the way to Missouri to compete in the Cal Ripken World Series. This competition is for young baseball players. Their team went through many rounds and games against other strong athletes to get where they ended up. In the end, their team won the US title, but were ultimately defeated when they played Japan for the title of the world champions. The boys fought hard and made all of us proud, and we had a couple questions to ask them about it.

Nash Beenen, 11, said that he was very happy to come into the
competition. He also said he felt proud because a lot of the competitors were older than he is. Beenen was also nervous! When asked about what he did to prepare for the games, he replied “We would usually pray in the hotel, have a meeting with the team, and practice.” He believed his team’s strengths were pitching and defense. After the team had defeated Hawaii and won the USA title, Nash said he felt good and the first thing he did was run onto the field and hug his teammates. He said that the most important part of having a great team is for all to love each other and to always pick each other up. His advice to aspiring baseball players is to never quit and keep working. Later in life, Nash Beenen wants to play college baseball and possibly MLB.

On the other hand, William Rollings said his thoughts coming into
the competition were that the team was going to lose very badly! Rollings also said he wasn’t very nervous. To prepare for each game, he would hit and warm up. After they won against Hawaii, William stated “I felt like 6 years of hard work had paid off.” He was absolutely right! William also said he wanted to continue on to play college baseball. His advice to aspiring baseball players is to work hard. He also said that the most important part of his team was “everyone has your back for everything.”

We are so proud of William and Nash. We hope they will continue
to follow their dreams and work hard. Watching their journey was very awe-inspiring and as a community, we would like congratulate both of them!

Nash and William’s Team

This article was written by Kiera McCarthy. Interviews were conducted by Kiera McCarthy and Marlee Irwin.