Trevin Pruitt does not let much get him down.
- Southeastern University baseball player Trevin Pruitt is an everyday hero
- Despite having cystic fibrosis, Pruitt plays college baseball and coaches younger players
- Nominate an Everyday Hero: Please email Michael.hardin@charter.com
The 19-year-old freshman and catcher on the Southeastern University baseball team hopes to go pro and has a lot of people who think he may just very well do that.
Even with his unusual daily routine.
“Breathing treatments in the morning. At night, I have to take medicine during the day. Whenever I eat,” Pruitt said.
That medication and those breathing treatments are a part of his life because he has cystic fibrosis, a genetic disorder that primarily affects the lungs and digestive system.
He’s been playing ball since he was four. Murphy asked him if anyone ever told him, with all his breathing challenges, this should not be the game for him.
“No. Not that I can think of,” Pruitt said. “I’m sure there were people along the way but my parents, they just told me that I could do anything that I wanted.”
He has support from his parents as well as his cousin, Garen Metzger, and just about everyone he’s ever met.
Pruitt has that effect on people.
As a matter of fact, in nearby Kathleen, the batter’s box baseball field bears his name.
On the day we visited, Pruitt was busy with his other duties… coaching the younger players, members of the Lakeland Legends of the batter’s box. The older kids, the team from Lakeland’s Victory Christian Academy.
Pruitt says the feeling he gets playing the game or watching these kids play is one in the same.
“I think it’s the same thing,” Pruitt said. “You’re on the field and you have success, and then whenever you’re coaching someone and they have success, then you feel that also.”
A young man who would love someday to join the Tampa Bay Rays -- probably a good idea not to get in his way.