The sports world is full of former athletes who wish they could go back in time. Right the wrongs of their athletic past.

If only I had caught that pass.

If only I had made that free throw.

If only I had focused more on the academic side of things.

The sea of regret is often deep and surely capable of haunting a person for the rest of their years. Kirk Cabana couldn’t let that happen to himself. And since time travel only exists in movies, he did the next best thing. Cabana resumed his athletic career … at age 30.

Prior to 2017, Cabana was last seen at Citrus College 10 years earlier when he was a hotshot kicker for the Owls football team. The former West Covina High standout had parlayed his two seasons at Citrus into a scholarship to North Carolina A&T. Then, he decided to dip into the world of self sabotage.

“I was signed, sealed and delivered, then I just decided to not go to school,” Cabana said. “For the fear of failure, I chose not to even try. I just chose not to take care of business.”

Cabana predictably didn’t qualify academically for North Carolina A&T and his football career was over. So was his pursuit of a college degree. Soon, Cabana found himself working for his brother-in-law’s pest control company as a technician. It’s a job he holds to this day.

But as life progressed for Cabana – he got married and had a kid – something kept eating at him. The thoughts of unfinished business and what might have been began to take their toll. Slowly but surely, he realized what he needed to do. Cabana had to restart the student-athlete phase of his life and finish things the right way. And he would do it as a baseball player, a sport he hadn’t played competitively since his sophomore year of high school.

“This was all 100 percent reflective of the birth of my son and knowing that I have always held my own self back,” Cabana said of the thinking that put him over the top. “I truly believed I had something left as an athlete, that I still had something left in the tank. I couldn’t have any more “what ifs.” I was fine with failing, but I wasn’t fine with not going out there and giving myself another chance.”

Re-enrolling at Citrus was easy. Anyone at any age can do that. But how, exactly, would an academically ineligible 30-year-old convince the Owls baseball coaching staff to give him a chance at making the baseball team? Cabana waited on the baseball part until he took three classes in the spring ’17 semester and bolstered his grade point average up enough to be eligible to play.

Next, he contacted the coaching staff by filling out an online questionnaire. He was soon contacted by the recruiting coordinator and a deal was struck that Cabana could participate in scrimmage games, but the other younger players had priority over him and he would get “some” at-bats.

“Needless to say, it didn’t go well,” Cabana said. “I hadn’t played in 15 years. I dealt with a gauntlet of old-age injuries and muscles not being as cooperative as they were before.”

Still, Cabana pressed on. After playing with the team during its summer games portion of the offseason, the coaches got real frank with Cabana.

“The head coach told me if I wanted to come out and try and make the team, my chances were about five percent,” Cabana said. “I said ‘that’s all I need.’ He was probably trying to be a nice guy. Five percent, it was probably even less than that.”

That fall, 60-plus players were trying to make the team. Cabana got better and better because he believed he could out-work 18- and 19-year-olds. And because he was using his past failures as fuel.

“I told myself I was going to be the Chase Utley of the team,” Cabana said. “I’m going to be on time. I’m going to help set up. I’m going to be the ultimate team player, and it worked.”

Cabana made the team. His role, however, wasn’t so much about what he did with a bat, or in the outfield with his glove. Instead, well, perhaps he can explain it best.

“I don’t like to use the term cheerleader, but I’m very much a vocal presence in the dugout,” Cabana said. “My role on the team was a bench player. If you came out to see one of our games, odds are you would probably hear me the entire time.”

What little action Cabana did see often came as a late-inning pinch runner. It’s a role he laughs about, because a 30-year-old on a team full of mostly teenagers shouldn’t be the speed guy on the base paths.

However, late in the season there was an opportunity for a cinematic moment, the perfect ending as if written into a Hollywood script. It was Citrus’ second-to-last game of the season, and the Owls needed a win in either of their final two games. Late in a 4-4 game against Glendale, which was also battling for a playoff spot, Cabana, the unlikely 30-year-old comeback story, had his chance.

Citrus had runners on first and second with one out when Cabana came to the plate. He quickly got down 0-2. The next pitch was a ball in the dirt that moved the runners to second and third. At 1-2, Cabana took another ball. With the count 2-2, Cabana fouled off two balls. Then, it happened.

“I told myself, it may not be this next pitch, but I will come through for my team,” Cabana said as he recalled waiting for that 2-2 pitch.

What happened next was not the dream fastball down the pipe that Cabana blasted into the gap to give his team the lead. Instead, it was a fastball, high and tight, that clipped him for a hit by pitch.

“Immediately, I was like ‘no!’” Cabana said. “But ultimately, I was the No. 9 hitter and it was my job to turn over the lineup and get it to the guys who had been doing it all season.”

That didn’t happen either. Citrus’ next two hitters produced a infield fly out and a strikeout to end the threat with no runs. The Owls later lost the game, and the next one, and missed the postseason. But Cabana’s point to himself was proven.

“To be on that field at that moment of our season with the noise and energy in that stadium, it was a culminating moment, big time,” Cabana said.

Cabana has now finished his associate degree. Because his clock has run out on playing at a Division I school, he can only play next at either Division II or an NAIA college. And he did just that, signing a letter of intent to play with Piedmont International University in North Carolina, which fittingly is a new school that just completed its program’s first year. And why sign Cabana?

“Because they were in need of leadership,” Cabana said.

Cabana’s long-range goal is to finish school, become a graduate assistant coach and then hopefully a head coach. With a journey like the one he’s been on, who’s ready to bet against him?

“I’m a winner,” Cabana said. “Throughout this whole process, it has taught me that I can do whatever I want. I know that sounds cliche. It feels cliche. But what I’ve started to become is not cliche.

“I know I am headed in a positive direction that will make my family and friends happy about who I am and who I am becoming.”

Yes, “becoming”, even at age 30.