When you are a young baseball player eight or nine years old, your whole life is in front of you. Time seems to stand still and Tuesday night’s baseball game with the greatest friends seems like it will never be over.  All you have to worry about is making a great hit and sliding home to score a run for your team. But as the seasons pass and you get older, it seems to go by so quickly until one day, you ask yourself, “Where did the time go?”

This is the case for five young men from Chapin.  Matt Charpia, Jake Berry, Zach Krumrey, Thomas Durant and Thomas Harper went from being young boys standing on the field with years and year in front of them to becoming stand-out players for Chapin High’s Varsity team. The players say they owe it to their first coach, Coach Jason Jolley. They say he played a huge roll in their baseball careers and that he taught them how to play loose, relax, enjoy the game, and most of all – to have fun.

Starting on the Lake Murray Sharks travel ball team back in 2008, these boys never thought they’d become so close and play together for so many years. They won first place in many of the tournaments they played in and went on to play through middle school and high school. May 7th marked the end of the 2014 baseball season for the Chapin Eagles and the last game for their senior year.

After graduating, Matt Charpia is planning on attending Lander University to major in business, Jake Berry was offered to play for Francis Marion, but turned it down to attend Clemson to also study business. Hunter Booth and Zack Krumrey will also be at Clemson in the fall, Thomas Durant is playing baseball for Coastal Carolina University, and Thomas Harper is undecided but knows he wants to still play baseball or major in engineering.

“I felt very privileged to have coached those kids and they have all turned out to be exceptional young men. I couldn’t be more proud of them.” said Coach Jolley about his five players.

His mentorship and guidance through the years has undoubtedly left a lasting effect on all of them so that one day, when they are older and they are looking back at their years on the field,  they will know exactly where that time has gone.