By Evan Carter
Cody Downing was born on July 12, 1991 in El Paso, Texas to Tim and Monica Downing. He has one Older Brother named Justin who is an Awarded Border Patrol Agent Supervisor on the southern border, and a younger brother named Hunter who is attending Medical School in Arkansas.
When we were kids Justin and Hunter liked to team up on Cody and I would help him fight back. After we’d all beat each other halfway blind we would watch funny movies and snack for hours. We all played baseball, to the tune of 120 games a year from the time we were 9 years old. Throughout his baseball career Cody would win a national championship with his 17u team, and he would regularly appear on All star teams and statistics leaderboards. Throughout his baseball career Cody would honorably serve at every single position outside of ownership on a baseball team. From batboy to High School Coach, Cody has learned and loved baseball wholly.
For his Education Cody attended Lindbergh (Mitzi Bond) Elementary School, Lincoln Middle School, Cathedral High School, New Mexico State for one Semester, North Eastern Oklahoma (in Miami, Oklahoma) for three semesters, five semesters at William Jewel to finish up his bachelor’s degrees in Psychology and Business playing baseball all the while. Cody would move on to University of Texas at El Paso for his post-grad studies where he would begin his official journey as an educator acquiring his teaching certificate.
While returning home during breaks and vacations in his last years of college, Cody fell in love with a beautiful and intelligent woman his age named Brittany, though she was also from El Paso she wasn’t there to stay… she was moving on to Dallas to pursue a Medical Doctorate Degree, so with a post-grad teaching certification and a little red truck, Cody followed the love of his life to Dallas Texas where he would teach his first four years at Roosevelt High School. There, he would head the program called AVID, a program designed to get children who are at risk back on track and ready for college and his first years of teaching were hard. The harsh inner-city conditions that his students faced on a day-to-day basis would wear on him constantly. Cody would not let the sadness and hardships he saw effect his productivity or desire to make good things happen for people who need help, and his love for Brittany would grow every day. He saved money by saving on space, the smallest one bedroom you can find in Dallas proper, and a cost to match. He put money away for a ring and a wedding. Cody got engaged and then married when Brittany graduated medical school.
The now live in Tuscon, where Cody Continues to teach high school college prep classes and coach his school’s baseball team. Brittany is finishing up her residency there. They have a beautiful home and an adorable puppy named Huck. The majority of Cody’s family also passionately pursues hunting and Camping in addition to baseball. They taught me much of what it means to be a proud, hardworking, American family, and I am thankful to call them, Cody in particular, My friend.