Hallsville High School students and staff gathered Monday to honor one of their own – and to hear that “dreams can come true, even from Hallsville, Texas.”
Justin Slaten, a 2016 Hallsville graduate and Major League Baseball player, returned home to see his jersey hung inside the school’s auxiliary gym. Slaten, who was born in Longview, is a relief pitcher for the Boston Red Sox.
Slaten is the first Bobcat to make it to the Major Leagues and is now a member of the Hallsville High School Athletics Hall of Fame.
Slaten’s former coaches talked Monday about his time as a Bobcat and why recognizing his achievements matter to the community.
“These young kids get to see the results of hard work, determination, goal-setting,” said Scott Mitchell, Slaten’s former baseball coach who now coaches golf at Hallsville. “They get to see that dreams can come true, even from Hallsville, Texas — a small town. And I think that’s important for these young men and young ladies to see that it doesn’t matter where you’re from, that if you dedicate yourself and you work hard, that dreams can come true.”
Mitchell said he is proud to have coached Slaten and to see how he has grown as an athlete over the years.
Slaten’s journey to the Major Leagues wasn’t linear, but his dream of getting there always guided him.
“I was never the kid growing up through junior high going into high school that was looked at as like a star athlete,” Slaten said. “I mean, to be honest with you, I was basically a junior on the (junior varsity) baseball team. I didn’t really get a good chance to play varsity sports until I was a senior.”
It wasn’t until he played with a team in Dallas when a coach there told him he would play college – and everything began to click.
“‘(The coach said) ‘Whether you believe that now or not, like, it’s gonna happen.’ And so when, you know, whenever (the coach) told me that, that was when things kind of started to change and I started, you know, trying to put in a little bit more work and getting in the weight room a little bit and trying to get good at things that I wasn’t good at,” Slaten said. “I just kept working, kept working, and eventually that opportunity came (to play in college). And for me, that opportunity was 12 hours away from home in Albuquerque, New Mexico” at the University of New Mexico.
The transition from high school to college was a big one for Slaten. He realized that talent wasn’t all that was needed.
“And truthfully … I had a ton of God-given abilities. I did, I really did. But I didn’t know what it meant to work towards goals until I got (to college),” he said.
Slaten told the crowd gathered Monday that the combination of hard work and the influence of the coaches he met along the way set him up for success.
“There’s a lot of people in this room that I’m sure have a ton of talent, but you don’t really know where you’re going with that talent,” he said. “Find someone that you can trust, that you can cling on to, that you think gives you the best advice possible. Number one, listen to your family, ’cause they’re gonna be the closest ones to you. And just keep working. I mean, even when things are bad, I promise you they can get worse.”
Hallsville Athletic Director Cody Farrell said Slaten’s story is a testament of what hard work can do. It also gives young athletes an example of someone who went to the same school as them to accomplish great things.
“So it’s kind of rare that you get to actually meet a hero, and so that’s what was important for these kids to be able to see him, to hear his story and to recognize the perseverance and the hard work that he put in,” Farrell said.
All of the Bobcat coaching staff, including coach Chris Whatley, who was the junior varsity coach while Slaten was at the school, applaud Slaten for not forgetting his roots.
“It’s like Hallsville is where he’s from, and he comes back and talks to our kids all the time, which is good just to, you know, give them encouraging words to keep believing in themselves,” Whatley said. “And, you know, Hallsville baseball, we’re held to a high standard around here. So, having somebody like Justin come back and talk to them just … proves to those kids that we can be really good.
“And, you know, it’s just fun to turn on the TV and you get to see a Hallsville kid pitching for the Red Sox,” he added.
Slaten encouraged everyone gathered Monday in the gym to “just keep working.”
“And, like Coach Mitchell said, it’s one thing to get there, but the hardest thing is to stay, because everybody wants to get there. And there’s always somebody coming for your job,” he said.
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