Delphos St. John’s Cam Elwer would not only play basketball for nearly any Division I NCAA basketball program in the country, he’d likely be a starting pitcher on their baseball team, as well. (Press Pros Feature Photos)
To have two MAC schools competing for a baseball title next week should come as no surprise…and there could have been three. The reason why there’s always a MAC team in the race? It’s the result of simple competitive choice.
Back in March, while Delphos St. Johns was ‘perfecting’ its way to an unblemished season and the Division VII basketball title in boys basketball, a neighbor friend in Covington said to me one day, “I’m guessing they play a lot of basketball at Delphos St. John.”
“Well,” I replied. “If that’s true, the last time they won a state championship in basketball was 2002. And before then it was in 1949 and ’83. Don’t you think they’d have won more often than four times in seventy five years?”
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He shrugged. Phil’s a smart guy, and I could see him mentally considering the percentages.
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I added. “You know, they’ve also won the football title six times since the MAC Conference began back in 1972. And I don’t know for sure, but I’m betting they teach pretty good Math and English, too. Just sayin’.”
Fast forward now ninety days, and we had nearly the same conversation this week about MAC schools and next week’s OHSAA state baseball championship weekend.
“How many MAC schools in it?” he asked me Friday.
“Two…St. Henry and Delphos St. John.”
“Really?” he said. “Delphos, again?”
“Same kids that played basketball,” I added. “So obviously, they do more than basketball.”
And obviously, one can say the same for Division VI St. Henry, who in the past calendar year has won the state football title (their seventh), the state girls basketball title (their first), and the state boys bowling title (their first). Should they win the state baseball title next weekend that will mark their fourth in baseball (1999, 2000, and ’03). Wally Post, the old Reds outfielder and St. Henry alum from the class of ’47…would have been proud. His great-grandson, Tate Boeckman, plays right field for the Redskins and is the nephew of Bobby Hoying, Wally’s grandson, the former Ohio State quarterback. So, obviously. Eh?
More MAC irony to this year’s OHSAA baseball tournament, as recent as this past week’s regional round of the tournament, no fewer than six of the ten MAC schools were in contention for a berth in next week’s title round.
“We live for this,” says Delphos St. John standout, Cam Elwer. As they do in other MAC school…Versailles’ Ian Bergman (above)
Division V Versailles got knocked out on Thursday in the regional title game by Columbus Academy, 3-2.
On that same day Coldwater got knocked out in the semi-final round by Amanda Clearcreek, 4-2.
Fort Recovery, in Division VI, was eliminated by a team from Galion, 8-2.
Marion Local, in Division VI, lost to Seneca East, 6-4.
So, owing to the fact of cannibalism – that only so many teams can advance when more than one plays in the same division – at one time just a few days ago as many as six MAC teams had a chance to win an OHSAA baseball title. And how do they do that, neighbor Phil, and you, might ask?
Well, it’s not all that crazy, considering that other local conferences had good baseball teams that made it to the district final round, and beyond…the MVL (Troy and Butler), and the Shelby County League (Fort Loramie and Russia). Contrary to what you might hear in today’s culture, kids do still like to play baseball.
But six teams out of one conference – 60% – is highly unlikely unless, that is, you take in consideration the age-old statement about rural communities in west-central Ohio, their work ethic, their competitive desire, and the expectation that if you’re going to play you might as well win. The sport doesn’t matter.
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And it’s not all about sports.
Pick your school from among those communities in the Shelby County League, the MAC, and the Western Buckeye League, and you’re apt to find that it’s just as competitive in the classroom. Marion Local, Minster, Russia, St. Henry, and countless others rank in the top 10% of the state for academic achievement. Some in the top 5% on a given year.
The expectations in those communities, by tradition, are simply higher than what you might find “closer to the interstate”, friend, former Press Pros colleague, and former Marion Local athletic director Stan Wilker once told me. “There’s less to do in the country.
“You walk the halls and nearly every kid is involved with something that’s competitive, even if it’s academic.” – former Marion Local athletic director Stan Wilker
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“You walk the halls and nearly every kid is involved with something that’s competitive, even if it’s academic,” he’d say. “Even valedictorian is highly competitive in the MAC.”
Another irony, the term and title of valedictorian is currently under seige in modern culture for the sake of inclusion and elimination of what’s called “toxic academic competition”. Who knew, once upon a time, that achievement in reading, writing, and arithmetic could make you a curse to the rest of the world? But that’s just the way they like in those same schools that routinely play for honors in football, basketball, and baseball.
“Our kids play to win. They expect to win,” St. Henry coach Mike Gast, himself a baseball alum from St. Henry tradition, told me this week.
“They win in football. They win in basketball, and that attitude carries over to the other sports. It’s a good thing,” Gast adds. “It makes you better for the rest of your life, because everything good in life is a competition – schools, jobs, relationships.”
One of my old high school teachers at Piqua High School, Don Flinn, used to say, “You win what you become in life. There’s no other way. And this is where it starts.”
But back to Delphos St. John, and the highly-acknowledged Cam Elwer, who will play shooting guard for Division I Furman University next winter in Greenville, South Carolina; and will also be one of the top four starting pitchers in next weekend’s Division VII competition at the state tournament.
“Winning is a good thing,” says St. Henry coach Mike Gast (above). “It makes you better for the rest of your life.”
His fastball will clock in the 85-87 range on a good day. And when he lands the breaking ball, it ranks among the best you’ll see in high school baseball. In fact, if college sports were not so prioritized in terms of commitment, I would venture to say that Elwer could pitch for most Division I colleges in the country. He throws strikes, and his competitive element, of course, is off the charts.
Behind him are the other members of that unbeaten championship basketball team – his brother Andrew, Tyce McClain, Jackson Wiechert, and the list goes on, as they say.
And not surprising, at St. Henry you get Jack Huelsman, Owen and Austin Zimmerman, Carter Laguire, Tate Boeckman, Jake Schwieterman, Drew Langenkamp, etc., et.al,..every one of them significant contributors on their state football championship team.
Of course, the competition is tough this week when it comes down to the final four. But the preparation is tough, too. To achieve in baseball you have to have the five requisite skills: run, throw, catch, hit, and hit with power.
None of it phases the schools who make it to Akron.
None of it phases kids at St. Henry and Delphos St. John. They’ve been doing it since they could walk.
“We live for this,” Cam Elwer said about competition during the height of the basketball tournament season.
The farther you live from the interstate, the better.
And this is where it starts.
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