That dude that just stole home! Armani Guzman...
That's the same kid who hit .053 his freshman year and was a role player. A Swiss Army knife for his club.
He always had the speed tool. Freshman year they used him mainly as a pinch runner. 1 for 19 at the dish. Most guys would have transferred or quit. He went to a summer league, made adjustments, only hit .248, but came back more prepared.
2025, back on the bench again. Hadn't started in 30 days. Coach noticed two pinch-hit singles in a blowout loss and put him back in the lineup.
He didn't try to do too much, he just contributed. Trust was being built.
About a year ago in the regionals, he hit a walk-off sacrifice fly. Then 4-for-5 with the go-ahead RBI in the 8th. The 2025 Regional MVP batted 9th.
His coach said it best.
"His mentality has been so spot on. You want to talk about a confident guy that's not arrogant. He is in such a strong place competing right now that he knows he'll have success." Coach Sabins, 2025
He wasn't confident because things were going well. Things were going well because he stayed confident!
By 2026 he's breaking the all-time stolen base record at WVU, delivering walk-off hits, and helping send West Virginia to Omaha for the first time in program history.
As a former D1 coach and 7th rounder, I love this story because it's real. The work wins. The best players fail the most, they just refuse to let it stop them.
In a world that wants everything now, let's play the long game.
Belief comes before ability. Always has. Let's let the next wave of athletes embrace this mentality, stay consistent, and stay persistent.
I went down a rabbit hole on Guzman because I saw it wasn't always easy and smooth sailing for him, as that's how most athletes on TV appear. Adversity will always show up. It's how we keep that belief and keep improving. Kudos to Guzman and WVU, fun to follow as a baseball fan.
I pulled much of this information from WVU sports, domainpost and 247sports.
@WVUBaseball@mani_ftn
This article was written by a 26 yr old college student by the name of Alyssa Ahlgren, who's in grad school for her MBA. What a GREAT perspecitve..👍🏽
My Generation Is Blind to the Prosperity Around Us!
I'm sitting in a small coffee shop near Nokomis (Florida) trying to think of what to write about. I scroll through my newsfeed on my phone looking at the latest headlines of presidential candidates calling for policies to "fix" the so-called injustices of capitalism. I put my phone down and continue to look around.
I see people talking freely, working on their MacBook's, ordering food they get in an instant, seeing cars go by outside, and it dawned on me. We live in the most privileged time in the most prosperous nation and we've become completely blind to it.
Vehicles, food, technology, freedom to associate with whom we choose.These things are so ingrained in our American way of life we don't give them a second thought.
We are so well off here in the United States that our poverty line begins 31 times above the global average. Thirty One Times!!!
Virtually no one in the United States is considered poor by global standards. Yet, in a time where we can order a product off Amazon with one click and have it at our doorstep the next day, we are unappreciative, unsatisfied, and ungrateful. ??
Our unappreciation is evident as the popularity of socialist policies among my generation continues to grow. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez recently said to Newsweek talking about the millennial generation, "An entire generation, which is now becoming one of the largest electorates in America, came of age and never saw American prosperity."
Never saw American prosperity! Let that sink in.
When I first read that statement, I thought to myself, that was quite literally the most entitled and factually illiterate thing I've ever heard in my 26 years on this earth. Many young people agree with her, which is entirely misguided.
My generation is being indoctrinated by a mainstream narrative to actually believe we have never seen prosperity. I know this first hand, I went to college, let's just say I didn't have the popular opinion, but I digress.
Why then, with all of the overwhelming evidence around us, evidence that I can even see sitting at a coffee shop, do we not view this as prosperity? We have people who are dying to get into our country.
People around the world destitute and truly impoverished. Yet, we have a young generation convinced they've never seen prosperity, and as a result, we elect some politicians who are dead set on taking steps towards abolishing capitalism.
Why? The answer is this,?? my generation has only seen prosperity. We have no contrast. We didn't live in the great depression, or live through two world wars, the Korean War, The Vietnam War or we didn't see the rise and fall of socialism and communism.
We don't know what it's like to live without the internet, without cars, without smartphones. We don't have a lack of prosperity problem. We have an entitlement problem, an ungratefulness problem, and it's spreading like a plague."
Can I return back to college football?
I only played 2 seasons, should have 2 more eligibility years left….
Can you find me a judge in Louisiana who can see to it that Honey Badger gets to finish his last 2 years of college football?
Who’s going to say no ?????
“If you think the world is selfish and rotten, go to the cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer overlooking Omaha Beach. See what one group of men did for another on D-Day, June 6th, 1944.” — Andy Rooney
“It was one of the most monumentally unselfish things one group of people did for another.”
-#DDay veteran Andy Rooney on the young 🇺🇸 🇨🇦 🇬🇧 soldiers who stormed the beaches of Normandy 82 years ago.
Required watching for every young person today!
I'm not counting chickens before they hatch, just feel like it's worth noting:
Game 1 of the College World Series Championship Final is on June 20.
West Virginia Day.
The Mountaineers are going to OMAHA for the first time in program history.
The players, staff, admin, families, fans, supporters, alumni, administration, and entire STATE did it.
🚨PRIDE MONTH🚨
The Texas Rangers are the ONLY MLB team not acknowledging “Pride Month.”
The Rangers are again not hosting an LGBT night event.
Instead, on June 18, they will be hosting a Faith and Family Night.
According to their website, the event will feature “personal testimonies from Rangers players Wyatt Langford, Josh Jung, Cody Bradford, Jacob Latz, Jalen Beeks, and others, sharing how faith impacts their lives both on and off the field.”
Where is everyone? I’m up here on the ridge by myself! No @WVUBaseball tickets, no problem! Passing out free pepperoni rolls? I’m in @wrenbaker! I’ll be up here at 10am tomorrow, let’s pack the ridge! Let’s GOOOOOO!
Thanks to Jason Nipper @SignShopWV in Morgantown for the gfx!