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There are certain rites of passage that require a guy to cowboy up no matter how much it hurts.

Harkening back to the days of my youth as a sophomore on the high school baseball team in the early ’70s BT (Before Twitter), I recall the first day of pitchers and catchers practice.

I was a kid on the catching staff and we spent half of the season on the tennis courts that year because it snowed so much our field was a constant quagmire.

During one particular practice a senior barked out, “You’re with me!” I didn’t much pay attention to the ball he picked up because I was amazed the ace on the varsity staff wanted me as his receiver.

He winds up, gives a Luis Tiant leg kick over his head and throws the heat. I can barely see the ball coming at me, so I hunker down and brace for impact.

Boom! It goes right through the webbing of my glove, hits me in the face, splits my lip and knocks me over backwards into a heap. “Damn, kid, you’re pretty tough.”

Yeah, right, as soon as stop seeing three of you, I’m gonna find a fungo with your name on it.

Come to find out, there was a bag of weighted balls for pitchers – like hitters swinging a weighted bat – that had black laces so you could tell the difference. From that point on, I checked for red laces on every ball I caught for the rest of my career.

I have a feeling that’s what catching a Kaden Jenks fastball is like. The Royal senior, who is headed to Weber State University next fall to play quarterback for the Wildcats, can zip a tight spiral from anywhere on the gridiron. So throwing from a stationary position on the hill 65 feet away from the dish should be a breeze. I’m thinking the Knights catcher must wear out his index finger calling a game with Jenks on the mound.

“Ah, let’s see, would you like to throw high heat, the fastball low and away or how about we just see if we can’t hit triple digits on the radar gun?”

Actually, the entire Royal staff has the Knights in fine position in the SCAC East coming out of spring break. Sawyer Jenks is a perfect No. 2 starter with a different pitch selection, and Corbin Christensen, a big, lanky junior, gives them yet another look coming on in relief.

CWAC ball

Othello starters Abel Gomez and Jon Garza don’t have the big, dominating arms found on the Royal pitching staff. But they are keen location-type guys who give the team a chance to play solid defense and keep the Huskies in the Central Washington Athletic Conference chase.

Sakiel Garza could probably fit into the starting rotation somewhere, but he’s been so effective in relief, why mess with success? Othello does have a solid bullpen in the likes of Arcenio Martinez, Gage Pruneda and TJ Martinez.

So as we move into the meat of the conference title hunts, I have only have one bit of advice. Check the laces, boys. If they’re black, let it hit the fence first or be prepared to break out the ice.