The discomfort of change can breed either a wounded victim of circumstances or a trained leader of character who inspires more change. Union baseball pitcher Ryan Middleton is an excellent example of the latter.
Arriving a whole thirty minutes early to our interview, Middleton stationed himself at a table right next to the entrance and stuck out a hand to me as I entered the coffee shop. Startled by the sudden warm welcome, I struggled to quickly put my things down in order to shake his hand, but he just patiently waited until I was done, and finally shook my hand with a small smile.
Ryan Middleton is a 22-year-old junior at Union University from Smiths Station, Ala., majoring in exercise science and pitching on the men’s baseball team. He also pitches for the Chatt-A-Hoots during the summer.
Unlike baseball players’ stereotype of being “jerks or jocks” as Middleton called it, he chose to describe himself with the three words “respectful, goofy and caring.” During our interview, his polite demeanor and modest way of carrying himself made these amiable traits of his even more evident to me.
Despite having played the same game of baseball all his life, Middleton has undergone tremendous transitions over the years that have shaped him into the respected team leader he is today. The first major series of transitions we talked about were his experiences of transferring schools twice in a row—from Andrew College in Georgia to Enterprise State Community College in Enterprise, Ala., and then finally from Enterprise to Union.
“I decided to come here, like super late, like mid-July,” Middleton said. “I did not scout the campus or anything. I just took a chance. It was an impulsive decision, but I love it here. My best friend’s here. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.”
Middleton then spoke of how hard it was to leave Andrew College for Enterprise: “It was heartbreaking leaving that school because you meet so many great guys that you don’t want to leave or let down.”
But he also shared that these painful transitions actually helped prepare him for the real world.
“Once you leave home, you have no choice but to grow up and fend for yourself,” Middleton said. “You have to get jobs. You learn how to stay clean. You have to learn how to cook for yourself and not go out to eat all the time. Stuff like that…you just grow up when you transition every couple years.”
The multiple uncomfortable changes Middleton experienced made him stronger and fostered in him humility and a constant strive to grow.
His aforementioned best friend and teammate, Britt Netterville, talked with me about Middleton’s constant desire to excel in baseball.
“He loves it,” said Netterville in reference to the game, his eyes widening with the word ‘loves.’ “He’s always talking about how he can improve, how he can locate his pitch better. His love for the game is really shown in his constant strive for improvement.”
After undergoing the external transitions of transferring schools, Middleton encountered yet another life-changing transition, but this time it was an internal one.
“When Middleton first came to Union,” Netterville said, “he had a self-confidence issue. I don’t really want to say it was an issue. It was just low.”
In an effort to push Middleton to his fullest potential, Netterville took it upon himself to be Middleton’s coach on his remarkable weight loss journey.
Middleton told me about this transformation brought about by the accountability of friendship: “When I came here, I was overweight. I was like, 245. And he [Britt] got me thriving to better myself. Starting January, I lost like 35 pounds. That’s probably one of the biggest blessings when Britt got me on my weight and made sure I lost it.”
Netterville’s act of service for Middleton inspired him to lose the weight as an act of service toward others. “Ryan didn’t lose weight for the weight,” Netterville said, “but for the game and the team, so he could perform better.”
The weight loss wasn’t the only noticeable way that Middleton transformed this year. “Over the months, watching him grow as a person, his confidence grew,” Netterville shared. “His competitive nature grew more.”
The assistant coach of the baseball team and Middleton’s close mentor, Coach Joe Fabre, also spoke proudly of Middleton’s positive transformation through transition.
“You trying to make me tear up here,” Fabre said with a short laugh when I asked him to share his perspective on how Middleton has grown the past year. With a soft sigh he said, “Seeing where Ryan was when he first showed up and where he is now, I’m extremely proud of him. The transformation that I think he made from last year to this year has been something that has been truly a joy to watch. To see his confidence continue to grow while remaining humble. Those two things don’t usually happen at the same time.”
Observed clearly by Fabre, Middleton’s extraordinary confidence birthed out of humility manifests itself in his others-centric leadership on the team off and on the field.
“I think he is a tremendous leader,” said Fabre, “I think he is going to continue getting better at it. I think Ryan approaches it with that type of humility, knowing ‘I’ve got to get better every day and I’ve got to demand that from myself first before I can demand that of my teammates. I can’t ask them to do anything I’m not willing to do.’ And he’s willing to do a whole lot.”
Fabre fondly spoke of how their relationship is not just one of mentor and mentee but one of close friends engaging in a two-way transformation.
“My view of him is something that changed as well,” Fabre said. “I thought that maybe he was too intense at first. But then I realized he was reaching his teammates on a level. I don’t think I could’ve changed without him. He changed me in that way.”
Middleton currently serves as his coach’s intern, helping with setting up and cleaning up after games, in constant training to guide and lead his team.
“I think that’s all leadership is in baseball,” said Middleton, “It’s just showing younger guys the ropes.”
And showing younger guys the ropes in baseball is exactly what Middleton wants to do in the future.
“I won’t be able to play professionally because I am not good enough,” he admitted with honest ease, “but I do want to teach other people how to play. After I’m done playing here, my goal is to be either a strength and conditioning coach, or be some type of college coach. Because I don’t think I can get away from it.”
He spoke of baseball as if it has been chasing him down all his life. It is always on his trail.
“I can’t sit still. Like, I’m struggling right now,” Middleton said with a laugh, one of his legs shaking under the table as he gripped the sides of his wooden chair to keep himself in place.
“My dad started me on pitching when I was eight years old, and it was always something that I loved. We always played catch. He would sit on our front steps and I would pitch to him. I threw the baseball through the window one time. Probably one of my favorite memories of playing pitch with my dad,” Middleton recalled with a glint in his eye.
He then decided to continue this legacy of teaching pitching: “There are videos on Facebook of me teaching my younger brother to pitch when he was six years old, and now he’s getting looked at by Union and other big schools, so it’s kind of rewarding to watch my younger brother go through the same thing I did but he’s getting a little better results than I did.”
Evidently, ever since a young age, Middleton found profound fulfilment in helping those around him grow to become a better version of themselves—to transform through uncomfortable transitions, just as he has—pushing them to become even better than himself. Middleton demonstrates the power of a true coach’s mindset in the making: the humility to walk beside players and push them toward more transitions of transformation.
His striking lack of self-centeredness may have been most evident in his response to my final question: “Is there anything else you would like others to know about you?”
“Nah,” he replied, with a quiet smile.
Photo by Taylor Edge
