Baseball starts season training in Kansas City
April 4, 2017
The baseball team is starting off another season and is hoping to thrive off their ability to play as a team in past seasons. The goal for the team each year is to compete for a Conference and Section title. This means the team can not afford to have a down season. The team has a few key players with experience from multiple years of experience, including seniors Thomas Bruchu, Austin Murr, Ben Peterson and Graham Laubscher. They look to stay competitive for their final season.
Tryouts for varsity this season are in Kansas City this year over the school’s spring break. The players will not have . The trip will consist of mostly juniors and seniors, but four sophomores are also going on the trip.
Last year, the team went to Florida for tryouts. Senior Captain Austin Murr said, “Last years trip was not the best. We went to the beach twice, we all got to play in maybe one game, and it was a big commitment for not a lot of baseball.” Things this year seem to be looking better.
The team has organized to play paintball in Kansas City as a team bonding activity, and some fun for the players. The boys have signed up before hand, also they are attending Skyzone and bowling. These activities give the trip more of a vacation for the players, so the trip is not all baseball.
Murr said, “This year I think will be a lot better, every night we will have a different activity and we will have more free time. And it is not as big of a commitment.”
Senior Trevor Eder-Zdechlik said, “It was incredibly fun and going to Florida really took out the stress part of the tryouts. The tryouts were basically practices rather than evaluators watching you, which I think really helped kids show their true potential.”
The trip is not free however it costs a couple hundred dollars, for it includes bus fare, rooms, paintball, bowling and Skyzone. Players going on the trip are given opportunities to fundraise throughout the offseason.
Murr said, “Cub bagging and volunteering with Stillwater Area and Lake Elmo youth baseball tryouts.”
There are a lot of strong players returning this year. All of the captains look to make an impact on the mound this year. In the preseason it looks like Eder-Zdechlik and Peterson will shape up the middle infield with Murr at first, Bruchu at third and Stanton behind the plate. Senior Laubscher will make an impact in the outfield, with Daniels.
Coach Mike Parker said, “Team goals are to compete for a conference championship and section championship, to play in the final game of sections.”
Baseball is a sport that has been around for years and had formed many close relationships and lifelong relationships. The baseball team is a group of tight-knit players who have spent most of their spring and summers together for the past couple years. Dedicated to the game, they hope for a possible state championship bid.
Murr said, “As a team goal, I would say our goal is to make it to the state tournament, we have a very deep and experienced senior class and we know what it takes. We made it to the VFW state tournament as sophomores and placed 4th with a 34-7 record. “They have all developed over the past few years and have grown even better.
The boys are dedicated and hope to have one last run their senior year at a state championship bid. The bond that has formed between this group of seniors in unbreakable. Eder-Zdechlik reflected on it as he said, “Everyone shares the same passion for the game. I really like the team aspect of it and how you come together with your friends to do something special.”
Olivia Knox • May 9, 2017 at 7:58 am
I like how you started off with the teams goal and then moved into tryouts and quotes from team captains. The layout of the story was perfect.
Katie Freichels • May 7, 2017 at 10:07 pm
I like how you not only talked about the try-outs in your article but how you wrote about different aspects of them team including their volunteer work. The quotes you used in the article pulled everything together and gave the perspectives of the players well.
Ryan Berg • May 7, 2017 at 9:09 pm
This was a very well informed article, you clearly knew what you were talking about. The quotes you used were strong and helped develop where the story was going. I also liked how you compared the two trips, and talked about why this years should be better. I think you could’ve had a bigger array of photos, the pictures you had were all similar.
Matthew McGinley • May 7, 2017 at 7:15 pm
I like how you focused on what was happening on the trip and helped the readers understand more on why it is the players traveled their for tryouts. Also I like how you then started talking about the expectations for the upcoming season. I think you could have interviewed more than two players but I did like that you interviewed the coach.
Kayla Gjerde • May 7, 2017 at 6:38 pm
Overall a really good article, had a ton of information in it. There were two repeat words in two sentences so maybe pay more attention to those. I thought Austin Murr had some really strong quotes. There could have been more quotes from the coach.
Christian Anderson • May 7, 2017 at 1:56 pm
The introduction seems a little weak and doesn’t pull me into the article as much as past articles you wrote. You could have started the introduction using the fact that they are in Kansas and then talk about goals in the nutgraph. The links are really insightful though. I really like the fact that you linked the baseball team to the schedule, and the coach to his Stillwater page. Still a good article.
Thomas Johnson • May 7, 2017 at 12:38 pm
This was a well-written article as the writer was able to talk about many different things that the team does on and off the field. The reader wasn’t only informed about the trip to Kansas City and their fun activities, but also about what some team goals are for the upcoming season. The quotes from the seniors were helpful to the reader to understand what kind of year it’s going to be for the team.
Jake Caywood • May 7, 2017 at 12:34 pm
I really liked how you incorporated details on the Kansas City trip as well as the teams expectations for the year. Most people don’t realize that the baseball trip to Kansas City isn’t just strictly baseball, there are other team bonding activities that they partake in and you did a good job informing the reader on that. Also great job covering the teams goals for the year as well as the bond that this group shares.
McKenna • May 3, 2017 at 8:37 pm
This was a really well written article, from the eye-catching headline to interesting facts about the team to the solid interviews like Max said. The title caught my eye because I wanted to learn more about why they started training in Kansas and I did learn that and more. Also, I really liked that you interviewed the coach, because hearing an adult’s perspective is really cool. Lastly, the article was written well and I could see the passion about writing about the baseball team. One thing that could have been better were the pictures, I would like to see more of the photos of players during like a game or more action photos.
Max Korth • May 1, 2017 at 10:00 pm
This was a really interesting article, it gave a lot of in-depth information about the team and how they have bonded and how well they play together. Also this article had many solid interviews that really showed the strength of the article.
Anthony Alvarado • Apr 25, 2017 at 11:14 am
the fact that you interviewed multiple important players and a coach was great. I think if you could’ve interviewed a fan or a manager, the article would’ve perfectly conveyed how excited everyone is to get the season rolling.
Hailey Laubscher • Apr 20, 2017 at 8:07 am
I liked how this article was interesting to read and the headline drew the reader in. I think that some of the quotes could have been stronger and more complete. I like how the coach was interviewed but I think one more player would’ve elevated the story and made it that much better. The article was nice to read because there was a lot of passion and made the players seem every excited to begin their season.
Conner Cole • Apr 6, 2017 at 11:20 am
This is a very good article because of a couple reasons. First it’s a story about our own baseball team and intrigues the reader. Secondly all quotes were mixed in perfectly in the article. Lastly the article is very informational and composed well.