FARGO — Mark Monson grew up on the northside of Fargo and graduated from North High in 1969, the year Monson was part of an American Legion baseball team that made it to the World Series of legion baseball.

Monson went on to attend college at the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks, where he continued to play baseball, a sport he has loved since an early age.

It was during his boyhood days when a baseball coach started calling him "Chico" and like a fly ball snared by Willie Mays, the name stuck.