David Howard, a retired Major League Baseball player for eight years, puts a great impact on being a professional baseball player for his son sophomore Drew Howard.

David Howard played for the Kansas City Royals for six years and the St. Louis Cardinals for two years. Drew said he wants to follow in his dad’s footsteps to become a great baseball player like his father.

“I look up to my dad a lot because he is a very big role model in my life. He inspires me to play the game the right way. The way he trained and worked to be the best he could [and] inspires me to be the best that I can be”, Howard said.

Drew has been playing baseball for 11 years. He said he cannot decide whether he will play it as a career or just in college.

“It would be a really hard choice whether or not to go to college, because if I were to get hurt and not have an education, then it would be harder to get a job. It would just come down to a lot of different things”, Howard said.

Drew said he has switched teams quite a bit over the past couple years between Mac n Seitz and Building Champions. Drew is currently on Building Champions.

“I practice about two to three hours during the week and six to nine hours on the weekend playing or practicing with my team. I have a Spring season that I play with the high school team. I have a summer team, which I do a lot of my time with and play the majority of my games with. I also have a fall team, which is when I get a lot of my work in and try to improve my game ”, Howard said.

Drew played on the freshman C team last year along with a couple sophomores. He said he hopes to make varsity as a sophomore or at the least junior varsity.

“I had a great time playing for the freshman team last year. We went 11-2, and I went 3-0 as a starting pitcher. I played shortstop and leadoff batting the whole year”, Howard said.

“My most favorite thing about baseball is that no matter what size you are, you can always be better than someone bigger than you. Your performance on the field shows how much work and time you put into getting better. People need to follow what they love and want to do for the rest of their lives — mine is baseball — that’s what I want to do for the rest of my life”, Howard said.