Lake Orion High School’s sports teams are placed in the Division One OAA league due to their size and population.
The theory behind the population-based placement is that the bigger a team’s talent pool, the higher quality their players should be.
Baseball season is gearing up in Lake Orion, and head Coach Andrew Schramek says the students that qualified for 2011’s team worked hard to earn their spots.
‘The teams in our league are good, and we consider our league to be pretty important,? said Schramek. ‘A school of our size makes it so we require a lot of talent to make the team, and the kids that made the cut worked very hard to get here.
‘To step up from JV to varsity is quite a step in Lake Orion, and all we can hope for is a smooth transition.?
Schramek said extracurricular activities, as well as having individual instructors for hitting and pitching have helped a lot of the hopeful varsity players train for the demanding league.
Returning players for the team include seniors Brett Wyss, Cole Schanzer, Conner Hopkins, Austin Boydanoff, Zach Zott, juniors Jake Gardiner, Roman Kuster, Cody Campbell, and Dalton Oveson.
All five seniors, according to Schramek, have been acting aas team leaders, especially during the winter, by showing up to every practice and every conditioning meet.
The focus on staying in shape relates to last year’s injury-riddled season, which finished for Lake Orion at 18-12. Schramek said that last year’s goals were not achieved. He added he doesn’t want to dwell on previous records, instead focusing on 2011’s goals.
Schramek is in his thirteenth year of coaching the varsity baseball team.