Baseball, one of the most traditional American sports, is currently popular among young athletes. Many players decided to attend conditioning early on to prepare themselves for the upcoming season. They all wanted to make a good first impression at conditioning in order to secure their spot on this competitive team.
“We’re doing a lot of team lifts in the weight room and throwing on the turf fields if the weather permits,” said sophomore Jacob Curtis. “The coaches have been giving us advice on how to get better in terms of hitting and fielding,” said freshman Eli Rittenhouse.

For inexperienced players, preseason can be both exciting and intimidating. The majority of them, however, claim it has not caused them too much stress. Rittenhouse is “not nervous about the tryouts because he has attended every practice and received a lot of advice from coaches and fellow athletes.” Upperclassmen Nick Curtis and Ethan Brown are also looking forward to the start of the season. “We have the toughest schedule this year and it’s not fun to play easy teams,” Curtis said. “There are a lot of good guys on our team and I think we’ll do a lot better than we did the last few years,” said Brown.

When asked if COVID-19 will have any impact on baseball games or practice, the majority of the student athletes agreed that it will not. Experienced athlete, John Bynaker believes that this season will be similar to previous ones. “Even last year, it wasn’t much different, sometimes you had to wear a mask but that was it,” said Bynaker. Other athletes appear to share the same opinion. “The only thing Covid can do is prevent us from playing and as an upperclassman, I get to play on Varsity a lot this year so I don’t want to miss out on anything,” said Brown.

With over twenty candidates interested in playing for both the JV and Varsity teams, players weren’t sure if everyone would be able to make it. “There are only 9 people playing on the field, but we try to keep approximately eighteen athletes on our team,” said Bynaker. The tryouts took place on Monday, February 21, and according to Nick Curtis, no one got cut. “Only ten people were able to make Varsity, and others who made junior varsity might be pulled up eventually,” said Curtis. He added that “the official season started on the following day and the team practices everyday, from right after school until five thirty.”

Curtis believes that every athlete on the team has a bright future in front of them. “I just want all of my teammates to compete in every game as if it’s their final opportunity”. They should play with the same joy and excitement as when they were kids, begging their parents to take them to the field,” said Curtis. While it may appear that such a competitive team is just interested in winning, the majority of baseball players are primarily looking for fun.