Photo courtesy of Kelly Loft Kelly and Dillon Loft pose for a photo at a recent tournament. Both are on the Marshall amateur baseball team.

Earlier in the week, I had the sixth episode of my podcast “Work Hard, Play Harder” with Ana, Rachel and Sam Schwarz. This weekend, I recorded a special Father’s Day episode, where I had the privilege of interviewing Southwest Minnesota State University Assistant Athletic Director Kelly Loft and his son Dillon, with both of them currently playing for the Marshall amateur baseball team.

The podcast is called “Work Hard, Play Harder” because that’s how I like to live my life. It is about finding out your why and getting to know you beyond the occupation. The podcast is informative about what you do but also asks fun questions as well. Building connections and being able to be relatable is an important aspect of my podcast as well.

In this podcast episode, Kelly and Dillon talk about their why into wanting to be involved with sports, the importance of the sport in their lives, coming from an entire family that either coaches or play sports and some of their fondest moments playing the sport. Kelly and Dillon also talk about how meaningful it is to play on the same team and also some favorite Father’s Day moments from both of their perspectives.

The praise and closeness of these two is evident in the episode by asking fun questions and talking about their memories on and off the field. One particular memory that was fun to hear was about Kelly’s first time playing in a game in over 28 years last month. 

“That Memorial Day weekend up in Tracy, I was going to play and I had not taken a ground ball or played since 1994,” Kelly said. “It was pretty unique, got into the batter’s box and asked myself, ‘What am I doing?’ It was fun, walked a couple times and got a hit. Joked with the guys and told them, ‘It’s not that hard fellas to put the bat on the ball.'” 

This episode will show the personality of these two and them being a supportive close-knit family that has developed a passion for sports and love for one another. It also shows building a competitiveness between father and son, but also what it’s like having a mother/daughter be terrific in their sports too. I learn about some more stories involving golf and I hope they get the opportunity to play against one another soon. With Father’s Day being around the corner, the bond between my dad and I is similar to Kelly and Dillon Loft. Lots of love and support, but extremely competitive with each other. 

— Chris Drummond is a sports reporter

for the Marshall Independent.

Email: cdrummond@marshallindependent.com

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