Mark Attaway described it as a "wonderful ride" and his family agreed completely.
The "ride," the Burke native referred to, has been the baseball experiences of his family. It's a dream come true and one they could never have imagined.
It has gone from the Little League diamonds in Morganton all the way to the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pa. and the North Carolina High School state finals at N.C. State University.
If this seems too much for one family's dream, it's not even over yet.
Mark's family — wife, Cynthia and sons Austin and Aaron — make their home on a beautiful hilltop just off Jamestown Road in southwest Burke.
Mark started his baseball career at Salem Junior High, playing shortstop for coach Bruce Stamey's championship teams in the early 1980s. He also played football and basketball for the Tigers before moving on to Freedom High and settling on baseball only.
Cynthia's sports career included gymnastics at the Morganton Recreation Center and volleyball on coach Jan Green's championship teams at Glen Alpine Jr. High.
Burke County moved from junior high's to middle schools when Austin, now 20, started his career as a shortstop for Liberty. He was a varsity player all four years at Freedom High and saw action as a shortstop, second baseman and pitcher. He played American Legion baseball for four years under coach Ronny Swink.
Austin is currently at Catawba Valley Community College in Hickory and will be a member of the school's first baseball team next spring.
Aaron, now 17, recently started his senior year at Patton High. and is playing with a Charlotte traveling baseball team this fall. He played all three sports at Liberty before advancing to Freedom where he teamed up in the infield with Austin during his freshman season.
Aaron enrolled at Patton when it opened his sophomore year and was the shortstop on last season's state championship runners-up. The team, coached by Brandon Scott, was the first Burke County high school baseball team to ever play in the state finals.
Aaron's baseball career started much earlier, like his brother, Austin, on the Glen Alpine recreation teams before moving to the Little League at the Morganton Recreation Department. It was there in 2004 he made the league all-star team as the shortstop. WIth his 10 teammates, they surprised everyone and won the state Little League crown under coach Alan Lail.
The next day, the team was off to the Tampa-St. Petersburg, Fla., area for the Southeast Little League tournament. Playing on ESPN, the dream season prevailed as our small-town boys won and advanced to Williamsport where they won two games and made it to the U.S. semifinals.
With the team's great success, many of the moms expressed hope that the boys would one day play together in high school. Nine of the 11 members were on the Patton squad last spring that almost brought home the state crown.
Roy Waters is a sports columnist for The News Herald. Waters was baseball and basketball coach at Salem High School from 1955-66, where his teams won 18 championships. In 2007, he was inducted into the Burke County Sports Hall of Fame.
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