By Ray Beasley |Staff Writer|

Coyote baseball star Darren Dworak earned ABCA/Rawlings West Region and CSUSB Male Athlete of the Year honors.

Dworak has worked hard all year and has been awarded one of the highest honors a CSUSB athlete can receive. He led the team with an outstanding .347 batting average, started all 47 games, and had a team high of 13 doubles. He showed up every night ready to work, leaving everything on the line.

Whether it was at practice or the game, the Coyotes could always count on Dworak to show up and give it his all. With an amazing work ethic and unbelievable athletic talent, it is no surprise that Dworak was awarded such honors.

“It felt like the long hours of work during and after practice, along with the continual struggle to stay mentally focused paid off,” said Dworak.

Continuing to stay mentally focused among the joys of success and the heartbreak of failure is one of the hardest lessons any baseball player can learn.

Oftentimes in baseball, players can allow their heads to get the best of them, but Dworak has dedicated himself to having a consistent work ethic, something which has enabled him to stay focused where others fail.

“Continuing to work, even when practice was over, is what helped me learn how to stay consistently focused,” said Dworak.

Dworak has been an athlete at CSUSB for all four years of his college career and has used baseball to not only stay focused on the field but in life as well.

When asked what his single greatest accomplishment was during his four years he said, “always trying to build relationships with team members, and learning how to gain trust and build friendships.”

Trust and camaraderie among teammates is a necessary ingredient for success. To achieve this, the Coyote baseball team resolved to never point the finger at fellow players but to take responsibility for their actions instead.

“Learning how to take on the responsibility for our own actions does not only help me grow on the baseball field but in life as well,” said Dworak.

It is a common trait among people to blame others for mistakes and the Coyote baseball team is not immune to this struggle. In the end, the players are only responsible for themselves.

Dworak took this life lesson to heart and dedicated himself to the personal responsibility he had to the team, knowing that if he was not successful at the end of night he had only himself to blame.

Dworak hopes to take these lessons further in his baseball career. He hopes to one day be drafted either by a major or minor league team but ultimately is unsure what the future holds for him.

“I do not know where I am going to play or go, but the mysteries in life are the challenges I live for,” said Dworak. As he moves on into the unknown future, he takes with him the hope of one day being able to teach and pass on what he has learned to others.

“I want to maybe teach kids the game, the mental aspects, and how to work hard,” said Dworak. With such ambitions, Dworak is truly an individual to be admired.

It is because of all these things that Dworak has been granted such high honors, and it is through these them that he will find success.