Those skills have been honed in many ways — but for Reavis, they’ve been fine-tuned, at times, in quiet moments on the diamond.
Parker Reavis pitches for the Carolina Forest baseball program.
“Baseball has helped me a lot because baseball is my happy place,” he said. “It’s where I can go get away. I know I can go be happy and do what I like to do. It’s my hobby. I feel like working hard at baseball is where I can get away and not think about anything. I don’t think when I’m doing baseball, I just do it. And I go and try to do the best I can.”
‘Everything for him’
Reavis has grown up being a ballplayer.
He’s also done it, since 2016, without his father.
That reality is carried with Parker every single day. And through the years, he admits the journey has been filled with emotions.
Ups and downs.
Seeing friends at major life events with their dads. Birthdays, graduations, championship games.
Emotional moments of missing the man who helped him fall in love with the game of baseball.
“[Those moments] are definitely difficult,” Reavis said. “I try to calm myself down, but then I think about it and it’s just a cycle. I probably go through it not that much, but I go through them. I think everyone probably does that has a tragedy like that in their life.
“There are things I’ve done that I wish he was there for. Like graduation, I’m definitely going to miss that. I wish he could be there. I have my moments. I have my stages of missing him. But, I try to look at the positives whenever I’m in those stages. I try not to cry as much, but of course there are times when you just cry. You wish you had him.”
Courban has witnessed her son’s journey closer than anybody.
Parker Reavis (right) and his mom, Whitney Courban (left).
She’s seen the highs and lows, and how Parker has navigated the waters of growing up without his father.
She’s seen his determination, fight and hard work. She also knows when things are off.
“He keeps a lot of things bottled up,” Courban said. “But, I can tell when something is not right. I remember a few months ago, I looked at him and I just went, ‘What is wrong with you?’ He said nothing. And I said it again, ‘What is wrong with you?’… He stood up, and he just let it go. We just stood there and hugged for probably five or ten minutes.”
