The game has not always been part of Calderon\u2019s life, but once it entered the picture, it quickly became a driving force.<\/p>\n
\u201cBaseball first became a passion of mine when I watched the 2017 Astros win the World Series, which made me want to start playing,\u201d Calderon said. \u201cI\u2019m usually a competitive person, so my drive to be the best has kept me in that pursuit.\u201d<\/p>\n
That fandom still shows today, with Calderon citing Astros stars Jeremy Pe\u00f1a, Yordan \u00c1lvarez, and Jose Altuve among the players he has admired.<\/p>\n
Like many young athletes, Calderon\u2019s early years came with growing pains.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt hasn\u2019t been easy, but I\u2019ve been able to trust in my ability more as the years have gone by,\u201d Calderon said. \u201cGoing from middle school ball to high school varsity as a freshman, I was very nervous. But the more I played, I just got used to the rhythm.\u201d<\/p>\n
That confidence culminated in one of the defining moments of his high school career a year ago \u2013 a campaign that saw the RHP receive an all-district honorable mention.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere have been multiple highlights in my time at Alief Taylor,\u201d Calderon said. \u201cBut I\u2019d have to say that my favorite one was throwing a perfect-game shutout last season against Willowridge. Moments like those don\u2019t come often, so you have to savor it when they do.\u201d<\/p>\n
From a team standpoint, Calderon has a clear picture in mind as the Lions look to get a competitive streak started.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt starts with discipline and commitment,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have the dependable players we need to win, so this is our chance to start putting it together with a new coach.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for what comes next, Calderon remains focused on both his athletic and professional future.<\/p>\n
\u201cHopefully, I can begin to get scouted for baseball and start to make a career out of it,\u201d he said. \u201cIf not, the plan is to go to a trade school, get a certification in HVAC, and go right into the job field.\u201d<\/p>\n
But in the short term, Calderon\u2019s attention remains on the season ahead \u2014 defined by opportunity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The game has not always been part of Calderon\u2019s life, but once it entered the picture, it quickly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":191716,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[76058,76059,76060,76061,76062,56,58,63427,57,76063,76064,76065,76066,76067,76068,62903,76069,62904,63448,76070,76071],"class_list":["post-191715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-atascocita-baseball","tag-barbers-hill-baseball","tag-concordia-lutheran-baseball","tag-episcopal-baseball","tag-friendswood-baseball","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-high-school-sports","tag-houston-news","tag-katy-baseball","tag-kingwood-baseball","tag-lsa-baseball","tag-memorial-baseball","tag-shadow-creek-baseball","tag-strake-jesuit-baseball","tag-texas-high-school-baseball","tag-tomball-baseball","tag-txhsbsb","tag-vype-houston-high-school-sports","tag-waller-baseball","tag-willis-baseball"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191715\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/191716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}