Ray, the people will come, Ray. They’ll come to Iowa for reasons they can’t even fathom. Terence Mann, Field of Dreams
It’s hard not to think of Ray Kinsella looking out his window in Dyersville, Iowa. Former Indiana Tech All-American Brent Seifert and Bay Area mainstay Coach Will Mosley are building a farm of dreams. The active pine fields sit quietly on family land between busy San Francisco and Sacramento. Four years from inception, it’s already where heart meets a vision. Looking ahead, there is a greater plan.
From Brent’s window, care for the community and understanding of baseball’s ability to teach life-lessons are the reasons. Will and Brent’s strategic thinking is carving out a place for kids to grow and play. People will drive up the driveway, knowing exactly why they’re doing it. They’ll come to Dixon, California to grow life skills through sport and farming.
Seifert is honoring his grandfather’s wishes. The J.A. Taylor Foundation, founded in 2020, is a non-profit organization established in memory of the late Jerry Taylor and surviving wife Alberta Taylor – local farmer, fabricator/machinist and philanthropist, committed to the education and development of youth in the community. The Farm reinforces the skills, habits and values of Seifert’s family and Kinsella himself.
Planting Trees
One generation plants the trees. The next gets the shade. In a county that is 62% farmland, Brent built, among other things, a 4-H training ground to teach students the value of work and accountability. The pens, built by hand (his and the students’) are made of repurposed wood from other parts of the the farm. Now, students arrive after school to feed and care for the animals.
The busiest part of the scenic facility is an 11,000 square foot indoor multi-use area for individual and team training. It’s a broad menu of activities for Solano County youth, all based in complete personal development:
Health and Wellness
Yoga and Meditation
Sports Practices
Speed and Agility
Workshops and Seminars
The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It’s been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But, baseball has marked the time. This field, this game is a part of our past, Ray. It reminds us of all that once was good and it could be again.” Terence Mann
Support the Farm
To spend time with Brent, Will and their supporters, join them for a day of golf in Vacaville.
J.A. Taylor Foundation Golf Tournament
Path to Success
Along the way Seifert and Mosley engage in what you did last week. They think strategically about the build and it’s impact. Linear thinking wonders, “What will I have for lunch today?” Strategic thinking creates the map. It asks, “What meals will I prep on Sunday for the week, to meet strength, time-management, and broader goals?” Author the adventure by envisioning the path.
Finish the “Kipling Challenge” from class by answering the growth questions below. Move from thinking to planning in two steps.
1. If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
Meaning:
Action in my life:
2. If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
Meaning:
Action in my life:
3. If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
(Repeat prompts)
4. Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
5. Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
6. And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:
7. If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
8. If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
9. If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
10. If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
11. Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:
12. If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
13. And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
14. If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
15. And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!
16. If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
17. If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
18. If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
"Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!”
Wednesday’s Class
A proven thinking and planning exercise improves college retention and success. Students get and stay on track during their first of college by self-authoring. One study showed that writing the ideal, detailed 3 month and 3 year vision, along with worst-case scenarios, reduces dropout rates by 50% for some student groups.
Our last course challenges you to build a growth mindset in the final stretch of the season and semester. Signing up takes 30-seconds and it’s a free.
www.sevwins-prep.org/the-class
If you are already enrolled, see you Wednesday at 6:00 PM Pacific Time!
Invite link -
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85044990216?pwd=VlExWTlBTjBYeTRqVHNVejBNMDJFdz09
Pay it Forward
Consider a $9 per month student scholarship as we begin again this summer. A new version of The Class is coming in June.
May all your sliders slide and your rollovers find the 6-hole.
On the adventure,
Greg Moore
People
Greg Moore
A former D1 and national team coach who spent 29-years in Higher Ed. The 2017 National Consortium for Academics & Sports award winner founded a non-profit, Sevwins Prep - college prep for ALL. It launched in 2023 and serves over 15,000 players, parents and coaches.