Player Diary 2.14.18
Welcome to the 2018 Potomac State Baseball player diary homepage. This season, Sophomore's Mitchell Henshaw (Brockport High School / Brockport, NY), and Jeff Wong (George Washington High School / Charleston, WV) will take the lead on the Potomac State Baseball Player Diary.
Thank you for tuning into another week of the Potomac State Baseball player diary! We are now 3 days away from our season opener. We will be traveling down to Florence, South Carolina to play in the Stinger Classic. We will be playing our games at Francis Marion University, and we are excited becuase they have a beautiful field. It will be a good experience for us. The team is ready to get the season underway. We have been working extremely hard all fall and winter to be as prepared as possible for this year. The coaching staff has done a great job pushing us and making sure we show up every day ready to compete.
Getting ready for the season while being inside a gym can be a battle, but we get after it. Making sure you show up mentally prepared every day I think is the biggest aspect. Being inside every day can get very repetitive but putting yourself in the right mindset and making each rep count is how we get it done. This past weekend the pitchers were throwing to the hitters inside our gym in the batting cage. Each pitcher would throw 3 innings, consuming of 18 pitches an inning. For us hitters, this is a huge advantage. This is the first time we have had an at-bat against a pitcher throwing full speed. Being able to see that before we open our season is huge. It is also helpful for pitchers to get back in groove of things by facing hitters instead of just throwing bullpens. Yesterday we had a team meeting before practice to make sure we are all squared away for the trip this weekend. The season is here, and I could tell that it had just clicked into some player’s heads how close it really is. This is the real deal, and I could not be more excited to get started.
I have been interviewing many players in the past weeks so this week I figured I would jump in and share a little information about myself. For those of you who may not have our first diary, my name is Mitchell Henshaw, also known as "Hitch". I am a sophomore catcher here at Potomac State. I will be continuing my academic and athletic career next year at St. John's University. I was born and raised in Brockport, NY by my wonderful parents Paul and Sue. I am one of three boys in the family, so it safe to say my parents had their hands full. My brothers and I grew up playing baseball. Whether it was a pick-up game in the backyard, or a travel tournament on the weekend, we kept ourselves busy.
My favorite baseball growing up and someone I always looked up to and still do is Andy Parrino. He was a graduate of my high school who was drafted by the San Diego Padres in 2007, and made his major league debut in 2011. Growing up it was great to see someone from a small town in Upstate New York make it to the bigs, and show that you can make things happen if you put your mind to it and work hard. My favorite baseball moment growing up was in my senior year when I had hit a walk-off three run home-run against one of our rival high schools. I can remember that it was absolutely freezing outside, and I had 3 under-armors on, I do not even know how I was able to move in all that gear. Earlier in the game I was pitching and I gave up a grand-slam that gave them the lead. In the last inning we were down 5-4 with runners on second and third, and I got a fastball up in the zone and was able to square it up and it left the yard.
One thing people do not know about me is that I grew up playing hockey too. Travel hockey tournaments had taken me all over the country, and it was a great experience to play with some great players. I love turning on the tv and watching college hockey on NBC and pointing out all the players that I had played with, our against. I am a big fan of the Buffalo Sabres, even though they continue to have another disappointing season. Their time is coming soon, hopefully. I am very excited to soon be able to watch the hockey games going on the Olympics. Go USA!
This week's weekly interview is with freshman David McQuain.
That will be it for this week's edition. Feel free to follow the team on Twitter
@PotomacStateBB and Instagram @potomacstatebaseball. You can also follow me on Twitter
@mhenshaw4 for some exclusive coverage of the team. If you have any questions or comments about the player diaries you can email me at mjh0025@mix.wvu.edu. Thank you for reading, hope you enjoyed it.
Hello Catamount fans! Welcome back for another installment of our weekly Potomac State Player Diary. Last week we featured Right-Handed Pitcher Joakim Svedhem of Belgium. This week we are featuring Denmark native, Tobias Holmelund. Tobias is a redshirt freshman, who transferred to Potomac State this year from Missouri Valley College, an NAIA school.
Tobias was born in S øborg , Denmark. He first started playing fast pitch softball at a very young age. Tobias later admits that his time playing fast-pitch soft ball equipped him well for the transition into baseball. Tobias grew up in a well educated household. His parents, Allen and Lene, are both Danish. Tobias can speak Danish and English fluently, and can communicate to a certain extent in German and Spanish.
“I started playing baseball regularly around 3 years ago, before that I grew up playing Men's Fast-pitch Softball in Denmark since our baseball level isn't the best. The transition has definitely been a challenge but I think fast-pitch has also benefit me as the game moves very fast compared to baseball. Ever since I started playing Fast pitch at 9 years old, our club always made sure we had great coaching by bringing in foreigners, especially American softball and baseball players to help make our club better. I've also had the amazing opportunity to be a part of MLB Europe's Camps and clinics which kick started my baseball career,” when I asked him when he started playing baseball.
The transition from fast pitch softball to baseball comes with a much bigger field, longer distances between the bases, and a longer distance from which pitchers have to throw from. The pace of the game of softball is very quick. Players must develop a quick reaction time. This has suited Tobias well, as he can play most positions on the baseball diamond and swings Thor’s hammer as a bat. Kidding, obviously; but when standing at the plate with his physical stature and golden locks of hair, you can’t help but think of the muscular, blonde haired, blue-eyed super hero.
“It was a pretty tough decision as going to school as a foreigner is a big financial decision to make. However, I knew that I really wanted to come to the United States to face the best competition possible and keep playing baseball as long as I can,” Tobias told me when asked if it was an easy or hard decision to come to the United States for college.
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| Tobias Holmelund |
Tobias took a redshirt last year from Missouri Valley College, allowing him to stay at Potomac State for an additional year after the 2018 season. When he was searching for a place to play, he came across Potomac State Baseball’s website. His interest and attention was immediately taken by the program’s history, learning that PSC has appeared in 4 different Junior College World Series.
“I was looking for a school to transfer to and I came across their (Potomac State’s) website. I was very impressed with the coaching staff and all their achievements. It seemed like the team had a great, winning atmosphere that I really wanted to be a part of,” Tobias told me when I asked him how he found out about Potomac State and why he chose to attend.
Tobias is one of the hardest working players on the 2018 Baseball Team. He dedicates most of his free time to improving his baseball tools. He works tirelessly in the batting cage honing his swing. I personally have seen Tobias arrive to practice early almost every day doing arm care, dry drills and taking defensive reps before most of the team arrives to practice.
Tobias’s work ethic is perhaps on its fullest display when he is in the weight room. Standing 6 foot 4 inches tall and weighing 230 pounds, Toby is one of our biggest bodies. This mass of human being is no waste of space. From my observations in the weight room, Tobias is the strongest player on the team. You can stop and watch at any point of Tobias work out, and you’d probably be impressed in one way, or another. He is usually either tossing around a large amount of weight or maintaining his impressive flexibility, which is a very important part in staying healthy for an entire baseball season.
In the classroom, Tobias is studying Business Technology at PSC, and plans to pursue a four-year degree in Physical Therapy following graduation from Potomac State. He has aspirations to open his own Physical Therapy clinic in the future. Tobias has a passion for improving his body and leading a healthy life style.
“Denmark is a very flat land, so I definitely think that all the beautiful mountainous nature is the best thing about living in West Virginia,” Tobias told me when asked what his favorite part about living in the Mountain State. “I'll get a little bit homesick here and there, but luckily I have some great teammates so it never gets that bad,” he responded when asked if he ever misses home.
Tobias and Joakim, our two international players, have brought tremendous value, both physically and in a social aspect, to the Potomac State Baseball Family. Potomac State welcomes all walks of life and backgrounds, allowing everyone on campus to be a part of a positive, constructive environment for education.
The Catamounts are set to travel to Florence, South Carolina this weekend, after a very productive and focused few weeks of spring practice. It is finally here! Time to play some Catamount baseball!
P.S. – Wish Tobias a happy birthday as he turns 21 tomorrow, February 15.