From pitcher to soldier: Kellen Hoyt trades cleats for combat boots
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When it comes to baseball, this kid’s home has been on the Mission Valley Mariner’s diamond. For the last four years Kellen Hoyt has pitched for the Mariners and even took to the college mound for a season at Dawson Community College in Glendive. But Hoyt is hanging up his mitt, playing his last day with the Mariners on June 10.
Baseball is and always has been dubbed “the American sport,” and Hoyt will be trading his M’s uniform in for another and wearing it with pride – Hoyt is a soldier with the United States Army National Guard. He will be joining other proud Americans for deployment to Afghanistan June 13.
Hoyt began his high school baseball career as a freshman and with the exception of his weeks at basic training, has spent every summer with his Mariners baseball family since. Though his team is sad to see him leave they are proud of their teammate and brother.
“He’s going to be greatly missed first of all, we were expecting a lot of great things with him this year,” Head Coach Jami Hanson said. “It’s sad but I also know where he’s going, defending us, defending our country.”
Though Hoyt said he has always wanted to serve his country he saw enlisting as a way to help him find a disciplined path.
“I was going down the wrong road and wanted to change my lifestyle,” he said.
Hoyt will be following in the footsteps of older brother Traven, who also spent a year in Afghanistan as an infantry Corporal in the United States Army and is now working on an engineering degree at Montana State University in Bozeman. Though Hoyt is unsure whether he will chose to make a career out of the military or not, one thing he is sure of – honoring his late father, Montana State Highway Patrol Officer Christopher Hoyt, by becoming a police officer himself, stating his father is his “inspiration.”
For Hoyt’s mother, Eileen Evertz, sending a son to deployment is hard, especially preparing for it a second time.
“It is very scary,” she said. “It’s overwhelming, there’s just so much to do. I know he’ll be ok, it will all be ok.”
Evertz believes her son will take what he has learned from his years with the Mariners and use the lessons well. She said she has watched him gain a sense of “pride, ownership, family, commitment,” and most of all “loyalty.” She is proud of the young man he has become and is looking to the future to watch him grow even more.
Hoyt will be spending his last week at home among family. He said he’ll “miss the feeling of total family” the most. For his team, he said “There’s no other baseball team like the Mariners.”
He is ready to fulfill his duty to defend the country he loves – he even volunteered for deployment.
“I’m excited and nervous at the same time,” Hoyt said. “Whatever happens, happens.”
The Mission Valley Mariners will be honoring their brother by hanging yellow ribbons at O’Malley Park and will not take them down until their hometown hero, Specialist Kellen Hoyt, returns.
“You just got to pray for him every day and wish him the best because this is not going to be an easy thing,” Coach Hanson said. “He’s got the respect of what he’s doing by defending our country. He’s going to be missed a lot by his teammates. We also know that he’s a good kid and that’s what you want to help us all out.”
Though Hoyt will be playing his last day with the Mariners, he will carry with him the title of a Mission Valley Mariner forever. The Mariners have a saying, “Once a Mariner, always a Mariner.”
