Confessions of a baseball mom


By Brandon Sheffield, smilehallsville.wordpress.com

HALLSVILLE – CRACK! Everyone has heard the sound above! You know the sound a bat makes when the ball hits the sweet part of the bat. Sending the ball through the air like a missile shot from a cannon!

And all though most of us have heard that sound at least once, you would be hard pressed to find someone who has heard it more that Suzanne Blakeley!

She has sat and watched all most every game her two sons Carson and Austin have played. She has also kept score at all most every one of those games. And she is as honest about the bookkeeping as she is in every other aspect of her life. And I admire her for that!

Married to her husband Pike Blakeley for twenty-five years, a confessed student of the game of baseball. Her life has been filled with baseball and all of its ups and downs. It’s the one sport where you can fail more at the plate than be successful and you can still be considered for induction into the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York!

And through that Suzanne has become extremely knowledgeable in the game of baseball but I think she has learned lessons from it that she has applied in her own life.

She gives advice to first-time baseball moms and to us dads, who might care a little too much about their son’s baseball career.

She is an amazing person. She just spent the majority of her life teaching.

She told me that she knew from day one that she wanted to be a teacher. And never swayed in that pursuit. She went straight into teaching out of college and became very successful in the classroom and other places. For over 21 years she taught at Longview ISD starting as a fourth-grade teacher, with her title changing multiple times over the last fifteen years!

img_4763

Her sons are respectful and courteous to others. Her oldest son Austin had one of the most successful high school careers in Hallsville history, where he shattered the Texas State records for doubles. And in her often honest, but very funny way. She will remind him that he broke that record only because he wasn’t fast enough to make it to third!

I often find myself talking to Suzanne or Pike about more than just baseball. They both have a way of talking to you about family issues and work issues in a relatable way.

Wisdom is not a word you hear spoken a lot in modern times. But they have it spades and it’s just one of the many qualities that makes her everyone’s favorite person. If you know Suzanne, you love her. That’s it. The first person to chip in and help in a bad situation and the first person to call and offer support.

When she was doing her yearly Christmas cookie party, you were jealous if you didn’t get an invite, because she made it so fun! I am a male who doesn’t bake cookies and I got jealous!

Suzanne recently stopped working for LISD and plans to work part time for Region 7 training teachers in new programs that will be implemented around the area. She will also go to work for Pike in August!

She also made it really clear that she plans on finding ways to volunteer in programs that allow her to still work children!

What a special person to have in our community!

(Visited 103 times, 1 visits today)