The Curse of The Raider: The U-32 Baseball Team

U-32’s baseball team has had a 45 year losing streak when it comes to the playoffs. The varsity team has worked for many years to make it deep into the playoffs but have always fallen short.

At the end of the 2014-15 baseball season, the U-32 baseball team lost to Harwood Union High School in the first round of last years playoffs.

Ethan McCollister, a senior at U-32 and three-year captain of the team said, “We played a great game against Harwood. We ended up losing in the eighth inning, but we played hard, played well, and it showed. We were beating a good team for seven of the eight innings.”

The baseball team has three goals that they hope to achieve this year: first, to achieve a win percentage of .500 or above; second, to make it to the quarterfinals in the playoffs; and third, to make it to the state championship.

“I think that there is a lot of experience… these last couple of years have all been building up to this year,” Bradley Smart, a junior and varsity player at U-32, said. “There’s a lot of good senior leadership, with guys like Ethan McCollister and Colby Brochu, who know what they need to do to lead a team.”

The team understands that this is a big task to take on, however, they believe that they can achieve these goals. Babe Ruth once said;

“The way a team plays as a whole determines its success. You may have the greatest bunch of individual stars in the world, but if they don’t play together, the club won’t be worth a dime.”

In response to this quote, Zach Campbell, a junior and varsity player at U-32 said, “A team effort is very important. If teamwork is not a part of our team then we will not succeed and become state champions like we want to.”

With big goals comes great challenges. Jackson Root, a junior and three year varsity player at U-32 said, “A challenge would be not being able to get onto the field. If we can’t get onto the field until our first game, to be honest it’s going to be hard for us at the beginning of the season to be as good or as ready as other teams.”

Root’s remedy for that problem: “to get a better field.”  He is referring to the request that the baseball team has made to our athletic directors over the years to change the dynamics of the field. The baseball team has requested that there be changes made to the way the field is set up. These changes include the field being modified to have better drainage, and the coaches’ request to turn the field around so that home plate is closer to the school. However, due to lack of funds, the team has been unable to achieve these tasks.

Cooper Lamb, a sophomore at U-32 said, “A challenge would be not winning enough games, we are going to need to win enough games to get above .500. We need to get guys on base and bring them home.”

With two games won in the books, the U-32 baseball team is looking good so far. Look for a later edition of THE CURSE OF THE RAIDER to see how our boys are progressing later on in the season.