Candice & Todd's blog: The beginning of the year

Breaking up the beginning of the year post a bit more~

FEBRUARY. Whew... what a month!

Starting with "National Signing Day" on February 4th. Mercer was one of three seniors on the baseball team who are playing at the next level. He was the 1st kid to go up on stage (alphabetical order by team and alphabetical order by last name). He's been thinking about this moment for QUITE some time! :)

We all got "gear" at Christmas to wear.... and we got him a Young Harris flag at Christmas too - he can hang this up in his dorm room!

(luckily, I've watched this on our Blue Devil News program each year for the previous 5 years and knew what to get ahead of time - including the bricks to hold the flag on the table).

These images came from the BDN program, as obviously, I was up on stage / couldn't take photos.

The actual signing was a blank piece of paper. He's supposed to get a "Letter of Intent" from his baseball coach, though, for real... still waiting on that over a month later. hmmmm...

It's an event that families are invited to. Due to short notice of the date and time of the event, Todd had a meeting and could not be there. I took part of the day off in order to go pick Isabella up, bring her to school, then unfortunately take her home b/c she wasn't feeling well. You can tell in the photos that she wasn't feeling up to it.

The coach said a few words... not a lot / not enough. Here is what we supplied on the questionnaire about his baseball & community achievements through the years:

Here are Marietta “community” things:

He’s been an active member of the First Presbyterian Church of Marietta youth program -- going on Road Rules and Puerto Rico mission trips + local missions.
Has worked for the City of Marietta Parks & Recreation Department for 3 summers – which is an accomplishment for a teenager to be asked to come back year-after-year-after year.

Baseball

He played with the MHS Blue Devils from 8^th grade through 12^th grade. He also played on several travel baseball teams -- playing on some “All Tournament Teams” through Perfect Game – 2021 (15u Spikes), 2022 (16u USA Scout) and 2024 (17u Wahoos)

I think what was most endearing, however, was his Little League career before high school and travel ball. He played for East Marietta National Little League from ages 4 – 14.

While he was there, East Marietta National Little League went to the state championships several years, including 2019 – they were the State of Georgia Champions (for 11u) and again in 2021 – State of Georgia Intermediate Champions (for 13u)

He had moved to travel ball, but was invited to play in the 2024 (16u) Senior League representing the state of Georgia with his former East Marietta Little League teammates. They got together for one final tournament in Safety Harbor, Florida playing other Senior League 16u teams from states across the southeast.

None of that made it to the lectern from which the coach spoke. My colleague noticed it and that he spoke highly of the other 2 guys.

Ironically, the 3 boys who signed for baseball started the season on the injured list! (the seniors are the "old men" of the team I suppose. (Mercer had a hamstring injury and started playing sooner than the others. One has a major injury and may not play all season?)

We don't get it. Mercer is such a great kid. He just must have his favorites... and M isn't one of them. Because he's got the 2 college offers, hopefully he knows that it's not him as an athlete... it's the coach. Luckily the 2 college coaches believed in him - in order to make him an offer. So, he's got that going for him!

The 2026 Cortina, Italy winter Olympics took place in February. We all watched it. Opening ceremonies, big air, half pike, ice skating, etc. We were here for it all! Lindsey crashed - bad. Elana (from Georgia!) won her bob-sledding event as an older mom of two. Alysa won gold in figure skating. The men's and the women's hockey team beat Canada.

I had another conference (and competition) for work. I was required to go (during our winter break!) because I am the official advisor for the club. I went with two other co-workers. We had a total of 16 students go.

One of my students took a silver medal in his category. Two film students took gold in their audio production and will be going to the national conference and competition event in June. The kids had a good time. It was a lot of work, though! I still had to teach at KSU, so I didn't really get a break anyways. But - I also didn't get anything done that I wanted to do over break. oof.

There was one good thing about being downtown: more building photos! :) the hotel we stayed in was SO NICE. And - I had some down-time one afternoon, so walked over to Mercedes-Benz stadium and the pedestrian bridge / took a bunch of interesting pictures.

The venue - GWCC - public space.

Full circle moment - when I was at Southface, we helped GWCC get their initial LEED for Existing Buildings certification. I saw several plaques while walking around. :)