“I feel like I want people to see that even though I’m a very competitive person, I still care about my teammates,” Marsh said. “Sometimes I feel like I come across as just wanting to win, and I don’t want people to think that. I just care about baseball. I try to be very personal with my teammates, like saying prayers before games and praying for my teammates. I feel like that’s a very important thing to me.”

Up to bat, RBHS senior Josh Marsh is facing a pitcher who is throwing in the low 90’s. The pitch comes high and in, and before he can react, the ball strikes his finger with a loud crack sound.

Q: What activities do you do at RBHS?

A: “Right now I’m just a part of the baseball team. I went to FCA a little bit during my freshman year, but I have done zero hour, which conflicts [with that]. I also played basketball my freshman year, but this year I’m just doing baseball and that’s a sport that I focused on throughout my high school career.”

Q: Have there been any teachers that have inspired you a lot or coaches at RBHS  and why?

A: “Teaching wise, Mr. [Neal] Blackburn taught a class called Sports Psychology. Whenever I get into slumps, I was a very mental player, and going through that class kind of helped me understand the mental side of sports and gave me some strategies to help me become a more mature athlete mentally. I feel like a lot of the coaches at Rock Bridge have had a pretty high impact on me. Coach [Justin] Towe, he kind of created some discipline for me, and yeah, he’s a great coach. Coach [Jeff] Bazat, who’s now the head coach [of Rock Bridge Baseball], [has] done a really good job with me. I think the main thing that I’ve learned from him is [how] he taught me a lot about my steel jumps at third base. That’s the one main thing I’ve taken away from him developmentally. […] Coach [Andy] Hight, he does a great job with pitching, and he’s pretty funny too. He kind of helps me have a lot of fun out on the baseball field. Overall, all [of] the coaches have impacted me and helped me become a disciplined and hardworking person.”

Q: What do you want to do in the future, [after] RBHS?

A: “I’m going to Mizzou. I’m going to get a doctor’s in Physical Therapy. I gained early admission into their program, which is highly prestigious. So that’s kind of a big deal for me. I have to maintain a good GPA there. But for my undergraduate, I plan on studying either Physical Therapy or Nutrition and Exercise Physiology.”

Q: Do you plan on continuing any sports past RBHS?

A: “No. Not really professionally or for a team in college. I’m probably going to play slow pitch softball with my friends and maybe join an intramural, club pickleball or spikeball team. I’m sure I’ll play basketball at the rec center all the time. I plan to stay active, but I won’t necessarily be committed to one sport in college.”

Q: So you’ve mentioned a couple of jobs you’re interested in and sports that you’ve done in the past, but could you fully describe the different paths that you’ve followed through the years at RBHS to find your interests, classes or sports?

A: “I’d say my freshman and sophomore year, I wanted to be a lawyer. I took Law and Order my freshman year, and I didn’t really enjoy that class as much as I thought I would. So I kind of pivoted. I pivoted from wanting to be a lawyer to wanting to play baseball in college. That’s why I took the Sports Psychology class. Once I got to my junior year, I started considering being some sort of physical therapist or a sports psychologist after taking the sports psychology class. I’d recommend to anyone who wants to go into the sports field or any health science related sports, [to] take Sports Med with Mr. [Phil Threatt],  and I’d take the Sports Psychology class with Mr. Blackburn and also just take a general psychology class. I’m taking AP Psychology right now […].” 

Q: How has cooperation or becoming friends with other people or students at RBHS helped form you into who you are now?

A: “I’d say I’ve had the most impact from people around me on the baseball team. I’ve played through all my high school years with the six seniors, including me, who’ll be graduating this year. Just being a part of that team, it means a lot more than just baseball. I mean, you create camaraderie and a lot of those guys are my best friends. I think that beyond baseball, it’s more than just baseball. It’s like you’re creating friendships and you’re learning how to work with people. I think that’s going to be the most important part for me coming out of baseball. [Although] I’m not playing anymore, just understanding that you’re doing more than just a job or playing a game. You’re making relationships throughout that whole process.”

Q: How do you think you’ve transformed as a person over your years at Rock Bridge?

A: “I’d say that I’ve become a very disciplined and hardworking person. I’d say I’ve always been pretty driven to work hard.  But working your way up from C team through varsity for high school sports kind of shows how a workplace might [be] because you have to [make] your way up through the system and [try] hard [to] get noticed by people who are above you in baseball, [like] coaches. You just kind of have to work hard, set your eyes on one thing,just keep working up to the next [team] and just take what you can get. I think I’ve also grown a lot in my faith. It’s a very important part of who I am. I’ve been involved in multiple things like K-Life. I go to church every Sunday. In the most recent months, I’ve been growing my relationship with God through scripture and prayer. That’s been very important to me as well.”

Q: What characteristics do you want other people to see in you and why?

A: “I feel like I want people to see that even though I’m a very competitive person, I still care about my teammates. Sometimes, I feel like I come across like I just want to win, and I don’t want people to think like that I just care about baseball. I try to be very personal with my teammates [by] saying prayers before games and praying for my teammates. I feel like that’s a very important thing to me. I try to just be as positive as I can. A lot of people say I’m a very smiley person, and I like that because I just want to seem joyful and just be a good influence on those around me.”

Q: How do influences in your life, like the people on the baseball team or your religion, affect choices that you make?

A: “I feel like religion is kind of just a basis for everything that I do. A lot of high schoolers get peer pressured into doing things, and staying strong in my faith is something that has led me to make the right decisions when I need to. I just feel like having good morals, a strong value system, not being afraid to be alone and following a group is something that’s very important. You may not have the most friends, but just having a small circle of people that you can rely on to keep you straight and that believe in similar things as you is a very strong foundation to have in high school.”

Q: In friend groups, I know I mentioned coaches and teachers earlier, but specifically friends, [which] people have influenced you the most through high school and how do they relate to you?

A: “Jackson Schultz, I’m going to room with him in college. He goes to Hickman, and he’s one of my best friends. We’ve been involved at K-Life, and I’ve kind of just played baseball with him in the summer. Something that’s been similar between us is our faith, and we’re both kind of introverted people. I just think that we’re similar in a lot of ways [in how] we both make the right choices and share similar interests. He’s just been someone that I look up to because he is very strong in his faith and he’s a very mature person. So I feel like I try to be like him in that way and I try to reflect the same on him, as I hoped that he would learn from me as well.”

Q: Earlier this year, your finger got injured while bunting. How has this injury affected you mentally, physically and what other challenges come with it?

A: “Mentally, it’s very difficult because I was really looking forward to having a really good senior year. I’ve been practicing, I’ve been working hard [and] I’ve been lifting all my years of high school. I don’t have any pressure to play baseball in college, and I can just have fun. Then, in the second game of the year, I broke my finger, and I didn’t expect this to happen. It’s really hard. I was out for, I think, seven or eight games. It’s just really hard to not be on the field. I’ve also been really proud of a lot of the guys who stepped up for me. I’ve also been able to build a bond with Evan Thomas, who is another outfielder.  He’s a junior, and he kind of filled in my role while I was out. So I’m very blessed to have built that friendship through my injury, which I did not expect. I’d say physically, I couldn’t play, obviously, because of the pain. I was kind of really creative in protecting my finger, and I’ve been able to play through it. It’s obviously not ideal, but it’s just something you have to do or something I want to do for the team to be there for those guys. I know that they want me to be on the field just as much as I do. I think it’s just kind of setting your own performance, setting yourself aside and just contributing to the team in any way that you can.”

Q: Other than the injury this year, what other challenges have you faced through high school?

A: “In general, I think balancing school and baseball has been very difficult. Last year, I took  AP Calculus BC, and it was Calculus 1 and 2 in the same year. So I was missing a lot of school [for] baseball, so I missed a lot of the Calculus 2 portion, and I didn’t get the AP credit for that. I would say that you should just put yourself out there and take the hardest classes that you can, as long as you’re not overwhelming yourself. I was still able to get the Calculus 1 credit, and I still have some of the knowledge of the Calculus 2 stuff.  I’d say that I would just push yourself as much as you’re willing to and just kind of go for it. I mean, you’re going to experience some challenges in high school, whether it be academically or athletically, but I think just pushing yourself to do the best that you can instead of backing down or giving up, I think that it’s really important […].”

Q: Would you say that the challenges you faced have benefited you in the long run?

A: “I never really played baseball with an injury before. I’ve never really gotten injured. After I got injured, I was thinking back, I was like, ‘Wow, like I’ve been very blessed to never really miss a time during baseball due to an injury.’ I think that me being injured this year and kind of playing through it has developed some perseverance in me. [I have been able to understand] that the circumstances don’t always have to be perfect for me to put my best step out there for the team and just perform in the best way that I can for them. It’s very important.”

Q: How has freshman through senior year at RBHS prepared you for your future?

A: “I think academically, I think it’s very important for me that I took so many college courses or AP courses in high school. I’ve taken calculus, which I’m not sure if I’ll need for my degree. I’ve taken AP Statistics, which I’ll for sure need for my physical therapy because you have to look at statistics and data for that. I’ve taken AP Spanish, which is one that I recommend. I took Spanish 2, and I didn’t really know what other classes I should take. So I just kept going with Spanish and actually learned that you can get the Seal of Biliteracy, which you’re not technically bilingual, but you wouldn’t have to take a language in college. I think that just getting as many credits as you can has helped me academically and also just taking a rigorous course schedule has made it so that I am prepared for the difficulty of college as well. I think for baseball, I’ve just learned a lot of skills and values for how I should tackle everything in life, like being disciplined, showing up every day for those around you, being hardworking and willing to put in the effort to work your way up instead of trying to get things handed to you. Those are some of the things I’ve been taught and things that are preparing me for college.”

Q: So you’ve mentioned baseball and sports psychology, and there’s obviously a connection there. Have your interests in sports kind of impacted you in choosing a future career and how do you plan to make an impact through that?

A: “I think, especially recently, I just got injured and that’s a few months after deciding that I’m going to be doing physical therapy. So I feel like being able to connect with the athletes that I’m going to work with in the future is something that’s very important because as a physical therapist, the athletes aren’t just going through a physical injury. They’re also not being able to be on the field and they’re struggling mentally. I think that getting injured has actually created some empathy for me and for my future career. I think that just being a physical therapist, I’m going to really enjoy it because I’ll still get to be around sports, which I love. I’m going to get to work with other athletes that have been in similar situations as me. It’s just going to be a great job and future career for me.”