Dan is 18 years old, an accomplished student, who remembers when his parents wanted him to start playing baseball. He has played on many teams but none as memorable as his 2009 high school team that won state.

“It wasn’t a Cinderella run but, it was kind of like it,” said Dan. “We got stuck playing all the good teams.”

Dan remembers three games in specific where his team had to “dig deep” in order to win. Each of those three games went into the eighth or ninth inning where Dan’s team won by a walk off home run. They beat every team in the tournament and finally were in the championship against Marlin.

The Marlin game was another game where his team had to play until the end in order to win. They were down by three runs in the seventh inning. They came back and got those runs back to tie the game and go to the eighth inning. Marlin didn’t score in that inning but Dan’s teammate Kyle got another walk off home run to win the game.

A little reporter girl, “who was so fine” said Kyle, came up to him and said “promise me you will give me an interview before you jump into the river.” “I’ll promise you anything,” said Kyle. He gave his interview and he, Dan and the rest of their team jumped into the Wisconsin River, which is a tradition for the state champion to do. Dan’s Cinderella run came to an end with the ending that his team wanted and is grateful that his parents had him play baseball at a young age instead of a different sport.