Every summer, baseball players from all over the country come to San Luis Obispo to play for the SLO Blues collegiate baseball team, but they don’t stay in hotels or the dugout, they stay with host families they’ve never met before.
A typical day for 21-year-old Logan Groff and 20-year-old Sebastian Lopez would be playing Fortnite with Becky and Ben Londo's kids at their home in the Edna Valley.
This is the Londo's first year hosting Blues players.
“Our middle child and our oldest son are really into baseball so I figured it’d be a good experience for them,” Becky Londo said.
Katie Walsh has hosted players at her family's home for three years. This is her first year as the Blues' host family coordinator. Her job is to ensure a good fit for each family and player involved in the program.
“It's a lot like Tetris," Walsh said of her job. "As we went through the process, each player has unique situations that you're working with and each family has unique situations, so it's very rewarding when you get all the blocks and the pieces to fit together and you make a good match.”
For Walsh, it was a match made in heaven. In her first season as a host family in 2022, she took in Kody Darcy from Washington State.
“The kids had never really experienced someone like new walking into their house and living with them,” Darcy recalled.
“My daughter hid under the coffee table for two weeks at dinner and didn't know how to act," Walsh added.
But it didn't take long until Darcy became family and he even asked to return to the Walsh home in 2023. Then, when it came time to graduate from college, there was no other place he wanted to be than back with the Walshs. This time, he brought his girlfriend while working on starting his own baseball program, Central Coast Riptide, which has already grown in the past year.
“Even though it's not your family, it's like a close-knit family feeling,” Darcy said of his experience living with the Walshs.
There are 23 families hosting 35 players all over San Luis Obispo County. It’s a transition for many of them while some have been doing it for decades.
“We have the resources throughout the summer to set some kids up and let them get a good summer baseball experience and in a new program and it's awesome," Ben Londo said.
For players like Lopez and Groff, they get to bond with the family and each other in a way they wouldn’t have ever been able to if not for playing summer ball with the Blues.
“We see each other in the morning and at night, and that's about it," Lopez said. "We're together a lot but also not a lot at the same time."
For the host, they get to share their families and their home for a summer.
“It takes people with big hearts and open homes to be a host," Walsh said. "But what you put into it as a host family is ultimately what you get out of it.”
For the players who share the field at Sinsheimer Park, those relationships and experiences are what make them want to come back.
“I'm going to see if I can come back and play here next year, so we'll see what happens," Groff stated.
The Blues finished the season at 21-13 ending on a 10-game win streak before losing in the playoffs.
You can learn more about the host-family program on the San Luis Obispo Blues Baseball website.
