Most baseball players hope to be committed to a college by the end of their 4 years with Lakes’s athletic program or finish their high school career in a good team environment. Players from both varsity and JV teams had the urge to do better and help their teammates grow within the season. Each player hoped to improve their record, but currently, varsity has a record of 8-7 and JV has a record of 7-10 and JV 2 has a 17-1 record. (This was as of Tuesday, April 25.)

Inside the JV 2 baseball team, freshman Dillan Davis is a 3rd baseman and talks about his experience with the Lakes baseball program. As a three-sport athlete, Davis faced challenges throughout the season such as “getting back into the season” after wrestling and football. The strong bond JV 2 has with Varsity, JV and their coaches has helped him push through the challenges he faced. According to Davis after their only loss the JV 2 team does well at “bouncing back” afterwards which is an admirable trait for a team to have. After losing the first game of a double header, the JV 2 team kept their heads high. They then went on to win their second game of the day. 

Ray or “Coach Gialo” is the assistant coach for the JV 2 baseball team. Gialo is very passionate about his job, if you’ve ever had him as a gym teacher you can attest to this. Gialo goes on to talk about how the JV 2 environment prepares them to advance into higher levels of baseball. Gialo says that JV 2 is giving players “basic and fundamentals” they need to succeed later in their sports career. JV 2 is a place to grow and fail in order to become a better player in the long run. JV 2 has an outstanding record of 17 wins and a single loss, giving the coaches and players the confidence to finish out the season strong. 

Within the varsity team, the junior Dereck Lucier starts as an outfielder and pitcher. Led by Coach Hoffman, Lucier explains how the season has been off to a good start with only a few things to work on as a team. Lucier stated “having high energy all the time has been difficult, we sometimes get lazy and unmotivated”. However, Lucier shared that by team bonding from “just hanging out after school makes them closer and can help them grow together”. He followed up with some personal challenges he has faced whether that be “swing adjustments or not confident enough,” said Lucier. he conquers them by riding the highs which allows him to hit some home runs. 

The team’s strong bond with each other and tactics to bounce back and lift each other up makes the Lakes Baseball program a strong and respectable community. Overall the coaches and varsity players make an admirable environment for people wanting to play whether that be newcomers or players returning to the sport from their other sports seasons. The expectations continue throughout the whole team to continue to make the baseball season a year to remember and hope to finish with a good record taking it “day by day”.