The Gillen family woke up on July 14 — the first of three days of the MLB Draft in Fort Worth, Texas — and contemplated whether they should host a draft party for Theo Gillen, who was expected to be taken at some point during the event. They knew he would be drafted, but did they want to set up for a party on the first day and leave room for disappointment.

Sam Gillen, Theo’s father, decided to go forth with the soiree, and his decision paid off when the Tampa Bay Rays were on the clock with the 18th pick.

The Rays selected Theo — an 18-year old shortstop with a 6-3, 198-pound frame from Westlake High School — and those who attended his gathering erupted inside his Austin, Texas home. His friends and family were ecstatic, and the flurry of emotions that come with it all spilled out as they each embraced him to celebrate.

“We had our own little draft party, and of course, we were a little nervous, like, ‘Do we even have a draft party?’” Sam Gillen said. “Because you really don’t know on draft morning if you’re gonna get selected. I’m just so proud of him, and thankful he’s been given this opportunity. To have him start something that he’s dreamed of his whole life, it’s amazing.”

The story of the Gillen family can’t be told without western Massachusetts, more specifically Hampshire County. Sam and his brother Pat grew up in Amherst. Pat attended high school at Amherst Regional and Sam took the prep school route at Cushing Academy in Ashburnham. Their parents, Bill and Connie Gillen, still live in Amherst, and they help run the Saturday morning farmers’ market on the common. Pat currently resides nearby in Belchertown with his wife and children.

Sam Gillen attended Springfield College and played baseball for four years before earning a contract with the Moncton Mets, a professional baseball team in Canada. After one year there, a year in which he won league MVP, he gave up baseball.

Yet even with all of his success, he still remembers his time in little league — listening to Stan Ziomek’s teaching points on how to improve his technique at a young age.

“The love for baseball in me started in Amherst, with T-ball and little league,” Sam Gillen said. “Stan Ziomek and the Ziomek family were huge influences on my life. We used to go to the Boston Red Sox games as a little league team, and that’s where my love for baseball came from.”

Following his playing career, Sam lived in Boston and then Chicago, where he and his wife Libby had two kids, Gigi and Theo, before finally settling down in Texas.

Right away, Theo turned the heads of youth coaches in the Austin area. Even at 7 years old, he was miles ahead of everyone else. A head coach of a youth travel baseball team saw Theo playing football in the fall when they first moved to town, and he told Sam and Libby that he wanted their son to be a part of his elite travel team — one that plays 60 games per summer and travels across the country.

“We kind of laughed at first, because what’s an elite 8-year-old travel baseball team,” Sam Gillen joked. “We talked about it, and we first said ‘no’ because an 8-year-old traveling all over the place to play 60 games sounded ridiculous. But then it worked out, and Theo loved it.”

To nobody in the Gillen family’s surprise, Theo thrived. He was always bigger, stronger and faster than the kids his age. At age 3, he played up with kids who were twice his age. When he was 6, he played up with 10 year olds. Theo constantly improved by playing tougher competition.

And Sam had a front row seat to it all. Usually when a father is very successful in a sport, coaching his son to be just as good, or better, is extremely common. But Sam stepped back and enjoyed Theo’s journey to being an eventual first-round pick as a father — not a coach.

That might have been the best part of it all for Sam.

“He was just always playing up and being asked to play on these amazing teams,” he said. “And I just got to be dad and enjoy it. I never coached him in anything. That’s been the fun part for me.”

Last Sunday, round one of the draft, became even more fun for Sam and his family.

Theo received a call around the 10th pick, and on the phone was another team with an upcoming selection. They offered Theo a contract, but it was a lower number than he wanted. With the guidance of J.D. Smart, Theo’s advisor, Theo turned them down.

He knew the pre-draft process went really well with Tampa Bay, and Theo wasn’t going to accept any number lower than what the Rays were offering.

“Theo and J.D. made a deal, and it was that they weren’t going to take any less to go to a different team,” Sam Gillen said. “So we got to enjoy the next 30 or so minutes from that 11th pick to the 18th pick knowing that if another team was to select him, they paid more to get him.”

Eventually the Rays drafted Theo at No. 18, which is exactly where he wanted to be because their organization showed him they were committed during pre-draft workouts. They were one of about a dozen teams to fly in representatives to work Theo out privately at Westlake.

Above the others, Tampa Bay stood out to him — just as he clearly stood out to them.

Theo inherited Sam’s passion for baseball, which has very well been taken to new heights. But it all started in Amherst.

“Somehow the love I had for the game seemed to be passed down to my son,” Sam Gillen said. “And I never signed Theo up for anything on my own, it was always him holding my hand. I don’t know how it all came through, but there is deep love for baseball in Amherst, Mass. and I’m very thankful for it. We wouldn’t be here without it.”