There’s just something about sports.

I’ve been following athletics closely since before I could do long division, and I still can’t quite figure it out. What is it about a bunch of people throwing around a ball in some manner that captures the hearts of millions? How can people become so invested in that ball-throwing or kicking activity through nothing more than watching it on television? Why do people quite literally dedicate their lives to these events even though so few make it?

Two conversations I’ve had stick out in my mind as the closest thing to an answer to those questions.

The first was with Brandon Beachy, former Indiana Wesleyan University baseball player and current rising star in Major League Baseball with the Atlanta Braves. Following his team’s untimely end to the 2011 season, I got a chance to talk with him on the phone. It had only been a short time since the season ended, but he told me he was already itching to get back to playing.

One thing Beachy said that surprised me was the fact that his offseason regimen started off with not even throwing a baseball for weeks, even months, on end. I caught him in the middle of this athletic abstinence. He said it was driving him crazy. I can only imagine it’s the same way for countless others with the same routine.

The second conversation was with current IWU student and former Wildcat volleyball standout Kelsey Masuda (sr). This talk happened in two parts: the first, shortly after her final season ended, and the second just weeks before she closes the book on college entirely. During both talks, one thing was evident: She still had the fire inside her to play. Whether it was four days or four months after her last dig, she still had that passion for the game.

It was easy to see in her, as well as Beachy, that athletics weren’t just something they did for fun or to pay the bills. Something deeper drives them to do what they do. Something inside them makes them want to sacrifice their bodies, time and energy for their sport. Both of them knew that they would miss their game because it was a part of them.

While I’ve never even so much as sniffed a high school junior varsity roster, I can relate to this idea in my own way.

I’ve been writing sports since I was 15 years old. As a high schooler working for my local newspaper, a staff writer for The Sojourn and now the sports editor for that same publication, it’s all I’ve known for as long as I can remember. Now that I’m moving on again, writing my last Wildcard, I’m finding that I still have that passion for sports that I did when I was 15.

Whether you’re an athlete, writer or just a die-hard fan of athletics, there will always come a time when you have to say goodbye to them in one way or another. As I’m finding out right now, typing these last few lines, it’s not always the easiest thing to do. Some people don’t get it. Heck, I’m still not sure I fully know why. But for me, it’s OK to not have all the answers. It’s OK to sit back in amazement.

Because there’s just something about sports.

As the end of the school year approaches, so is the Indiana Wesleyan University Wildcats’ baseball season as the team heads toward the MCC Tournament in May.

The Wildcats went against Goshen College in a doubleheader on March 31, losing the first game 4-3. The Wildcats fell behind in the second game as well, but some seventh-inning heroics in the form of four runs brought IWU to a 7-6 victory.

“Losing the first game kind of put us in our place,” pitcher Michael Caley (jr) said. “We knew our backs were against the wall and that they could beat us, and we kind of came together in the last inning and knew we had to beat them.”

The Goshen games brought IWU’s overall record to 14-17. Coach Chad Newhard said his team still has more work to do.

“We just have to continue to play good baseball,” Newhard said. “I think every game is important for us. Every win we can win is helpful for us. We can’t ever overlook anyone, and we make sure we are playing at a high level every day.”

The win against Goshen was important, just like every game, because MCC teams must be in the top five in conference standings at season’s end to be in the tournament. The Wildcats are currently in a tie for fourth with Mount Vernon Nazarene, Grace and Marian with a record of 6-6 in the MCC.

Caley said he isn’t worried about making it to the tournament just yet, but instead about each individual game.

“I think as a team we need to focus on playing the best baseball we can play,” said Caley. “And when we play to the best of our abilities, there aren’t many teams that can beat us. We beat Spring Arbor, the best team in the nation.”

Spring Arbor University has an MCC record of 9-3, second only to Taylor University. IWU played the Cougars in two doubleheaders, resulting in a pair of splits.

Wildcat catcher Alex Ridlen (sr) said the team has great chemistry, and it’s that chemistry and hard work that will move IWU forward to the MCC tournament.

“For all of us, a major goal is just to be the hardest-working guys out there because we know that if we’re going to beat teams, we’re going to have to work harder than them,” Ridlen said. “We’re looking to win 21 games at conference because that’s what we’re looking to have to get into tournament.”

Newhard said the team continues to practice every day and sometimes even has an extra practice in the morning. But his main focus is keep the team’s dynamic together and in the right direction.

“We are a true essence of a team,” Newhard said. “If we are to have success, our offense and defense need to play at a high level instead of getting caught up in ‘what I’m doing.’ We need to get caught up in ‘what we’re doing.’”

I try to be a funny guy. Maybe I’m failing, but I keep trying nonetheless. I’m not a big fan, however, of when I’m funny without meaning to be. Unfortunately for my ego, that’s what my non-sports opinion pieces for The Sojourn have been: downright laughable.

My first misguided attempt at an advice column came less than a month into my college career. At that point I offered about as much helpful insight as a Magic 8 Ball. This year, I tried my hand at being meaningful at a time when my life was in about as much disarray as it’s ever been. Mix in a piece trying to convince people not to take things too seriously on a campus where everything is taken too seriously, and I have made myself into the Dear Abby version of Seinfeld.

They say fourth time’s the charm, right?

We’re just a couple weeks away from the end of another semester and another school year. Insert line about how quickly time flies here. For me, this milestone means my time at Indiana Wesleyan University is halfway through, barring another change of major. But it also means an increase in responsibilities, leadership and opportunities.

No matter what stage of the game you’re in, you’re also starting a new chapter. This year’s seniors are embarking on what some call “the real world.” Juniors are getting ready to start their last year, with final projects in mind. Sophomores like me are at the halfway point. Freshmen now really know what college is like, and don’t have to live in Bowman or Shatford anymore.

With these changes will come added challenges for all of us like the ones I mentioned earlier, but I’m told that’s just a part of something called “growing up.”

Here’s my favorite part about all of those extra responsibilities, however: Each one signifies the start of a new chapter in our own personal story. Maybe you didn’t like how the last one ended, maybe you’re looking for a fresh start; maybe you need to make some changes. No matter what the case, you now have an opportunity to put the past where it belongs: in the past.

I don’t know what that looks like for you, whether it’s changing your major, deciding not to use your major as a graduate, or just changing dorms. Nothing is too large or too small of a change if you firmly believe it’s the right way to go.

To be perfectly honest, I’m not sure what all of this means for me either. While the end of the semester truly does bring one of my favorite things in a new beginning, it also brings one of my least favorite: uncertainty, which is another word for, “Oh my gosh, what am I doing with my life?” And while there can also be much hope with that, it’s no laughing matter.

Kelsey Masuda (sr) has come a long way since high school.

Literally.

She grew up near Tokyo, living in Japan until her freshman year of college at Indiana Wesleyan University, where the libero dominated the Wildcats’ volleyball court like no one else the school has ever seen.

But there’s so much more to her than just being the girl who wore the opposite-color jersey than her teammates. Masuda crochets, says she wants to write a book someday and is a self-proclaimed ninja.

And according to her coaches and teammates, she also has swagger.

“Kelsey embodied that so well because in her personality, she would never ever want to show anything but humility,” Wildcats’ coach Candace Moats said. “But that word gave her an outlet to find her way in that, ‘I am good and I’m going to go out there and I’m going to show that, but I’m going to have fun doing it.’”

“Swagger” is the term the Wildcat volleyball team used for its quiet confidence during the 2011 season, a campaign that saw IWU go 36-6 and make it all the way to the NAIA National Championship Tournament. As one of the team’s leaders and league’s most outstanding players, Masuda was a great example of that ideal.

“She did have that swag,” said Wildcat Becca Brandes (so). “She gained that confidence as we went through the year. She was a leader.”

Masuda didn’t always have those qualities, however. Ask her team about her growth in assertiveness and confidence, even over the last two seasons, and you’ll get the same message: She was good when she got here, but great when she left.

Coach Moats said that shift in mindset greatly improved her on-court performance during her junior and senior years.

“That self-efficacy about herself; believing that she could do it, just seeing that she could take our team somewhere and that she was a big role in that was definitely a part of the self-confident role that came with that,” Moats said. “I don’t think it would have come if she would have never let herself believe that she could achieve these things.”

“Kelsey is a little more quiet, obviously she comes from a different kind of culture, and she’s used to not pitting in her say as much,” Brandes added. “Throughout the year she became better at talking out loud and telling people what she was feeling; she gained so much confidence.”

Having been raised in Japan, a place where she says the culture is to naturally be less vocal in most respects, Masuda started at IWU with a plan to stay in the shadows.

“I never thought that coming in I could step out of being timid,” Masuda said. “I’ve always been confident in things that I do, but as far as having a voice and stepping out of that fear, I never thought I would be able to do that. Volleyball has allowed me to step up as a leader and have a voice.”

Masuda’s extensive journey, both geographically and in her growth, has been a long time coming. She went to a missionary school outside Tokyo, where she said most graduates come to the United States. Early on, Masuda had her sights set on California, “Because, you know, California is California,” she said. But when several of her friends headed for the Golden State, the independent Masuda began looking elsewhere. With a set of grandparents residing in Indianapolis, she began looking at Christian colleges in the area, including Taylor University, Bethel College and IWU.

IWU quickly jumped out from all the rest, thanks in large part to a meaningful conversation Masuda had with coach Moats during their first meeting.

“Coach grabbed me, and she got my heart,” Masuda said. “Everything is so much deeper, especially on my team and with Coach, the relationships are much deeper, the conversations are more transparent. It was really good for me, it changed my outlook on relationships.”

One unique relationship Masuda will take away from her Wildcat experience is with Moats. The two have continued past the end of the volleyball season and even play together on a YMCA co-ed team each week.

“I consider her my friend,” Masuda said. “We just talk all the time about everything stuff that’s going on in our lives, deep things, fun things. It’s not the type of coach-player relationship where it ends after you graduate.”

But things haven’t always been that easy for Masuda. While her mother is American, growing up in Japan and switching cultures as a teenager wasn’t as seamless a transition as she expected.

“I thought I knew what it meant to live in America, but I didn’t; I had to adapt really fast,” Masuda said. “In Japan, you hide a lot. You hide a lot of hurt, you hide a lot of struggle, but here, especially on my team and the girls that I am with, it’s just an open book and it was just really intense for me.”

Even little things like sense of humor changed dramatically.

“Japanese humor is very blunt and very physical humor as opposed to sarcasm. I would say things thinking they were funny, and I would offend people,” Masuda said. “It wasn’t bad offensive, it was just like, ‘Oh, that’s not funny here.’”

Once she figured everything out, however, it was no laughing matter for her opponents on the court.

In her four years playing for the Wildcats, Masuda tallied 2,451 digs and helped lead the 2012 senior class to a 107-63 record, including 888 digs during IWU’s historic 2011 run. Her senior season efforts earned her nine MCC Libero of the Week awards, the MCC Libero of the Year title and a spot on the NAIA All-American Third Team.

While it may have taken a while for her to build up that swagger and success, according to Moats, the potential for greatness was obvious in her from her first practice with the team. Masuda was just a recruit going through drills with the team when it came time to run five consecutive suicides, a feared exercise the team had been building up to for weeks. Coach Moats told Masuda she didn’t have to go all-out on the drill, but, as all of IWU would find out over the next four years, Masuda doesn’t do anything halfway.

“I don’t know what a sprint is like, to go easy on a sprint,” Masuda said. “If you’re not sprinting, you’re jogging. You don’t jog suicides.”

With none of the buildup the rest of the players had, Masuda did the five suicides and promptly walked over to the nearest trash can and threw up.

She looks back on the memory with a laugh.

“You want to put it all on the floor, and I literally did,” she said.

Masuda has come a long way. She admits that she still has a long way to go as well. As she prepares to graduate from IWU with degrees in computer graphics and business administration, her short-term goals are to move to Michigan in June, where she will do freelance photography work and nanny part-time. Long term, Masuda hopes to return to Japan to do missions work, with hopes of integrating art.

Moats said no matter what Masuda does, she will be successful at it because of her work ethic and heart for people.

“Wherever she goes, whatever she does, I know this: She’s going to love people, I know she’s going to work super hard at being the best she can be, and I know she’s going to love the Lord,” Moats said.

Masuda also wants to continue playing volleyball in some capacity. Show her a clip of the Wildcats’ MCC Tournament Championship victory over Taylor and her fire for the game ignites. But at the same time, Masuda is looking toward her future and the opportunities it holds.

“I miss it, I miss it a lot,” Masuda said. “The passion is still there; the desire to play volleyball is still there, but it’s shifting. I love the game, I still love the girls, but it’s not ahold of my heart anymore.”

Masuda has forever etched her name in the annals of IWU volleyball history. If her career with the Wildcats is any indication of how the rest of her life will go, she’ll continue to show her swagger no matter where the ball bounces.