January 04th, 2020

Let the Countdown Begin!

​The holidays are over, the Christmas decorations are down, and the cookies are almost eaten. We are full of cheese and maybe a little confused on the day of the week until we return to work. However, behind the scenes, the Cotuit Kettleers Athletic Association has been hard at work. If you look at the Cotuit Kettleers web site, you will see that the roster is already posted and we are all excited for the time in June when the players make their way onto the Cape. Many families who host a player are looking at the roster, finding out as much as they can about each player, and are anticipating finding out when they get that email telling them who is going to join their family for the summer. 

This time last year I did not know about any of this. All I knew was that the Cape Cod Baseball League games were the staple of our evening plans. My family used to vacation on the cape, then we bought a small summer cottage on the cape, then we found it harder and harder to leave at the end of the summer. So, we got our teaching licenses for MA and became full time Cape Cod residents. Once we bought our home in Marstons Mills, about seven minutes from Lowell Park, we decided to spend our summer rooting for the Kettleers. We also made sure we had enough room in the house to be able to potentially host a player--someday. 

This past March, my husband decided to go to a Kettleers meeting and our venture as a host family began. We were lucky to have three players enter our home at different times in the beginning of the summer. The first player to enter our home was Jack Dellinger. He we was a temporary player and draft eligible so we knew there was a chance he wasn’t going to live with us for long. However, even though he was drafted to the Detroit Tigers organization within the first week of living with us, he became a permanent member of our family. Our second player was Kyle Nicolas. He was a fiery pitcher from Ball State who could throw a 100 mph fast-ball, but has a kind and humble disposition. He was assigned to us as our permanent player and spent his whole summer with us. He also became a big brother to our daughter and our family not only grew by one, but we also became very close with his family. Our third player was Oraj Anu, or as we all called him, Raj. He came to us as a temporary player. Even though he had already been drafted by the Boston Red Sox organization, he ended up living with us for the rest of the season. Both the players became our daughter’s big brothers and the rest of the season was memorable and amazing. 

Now that you know my story, the reason for this blog is to take you through the adventures of being a host family. As the blog progresses, we hope to be able to share insights, recipes, and just a comical view of what it is like to host a player. Keep checking back to the site for more articles.