Spring sports season has arrived, and with it has come a chance for Summit’s baseball team to prove themselves on the field. Having last won the state title in the 2015/16 season, the Storm are ready to make it back to the top.

“This season, our first goal is to win the league. We have the talent and if we can get the consistency down we will be in a great place,” said sophomore outfielder and pitcher Slater Debrun. 

After the League tournament, Debrun said that “when the playoffs come around and we are healthy and ready to go, we will be in a good spot to get far into the tournament.” “Our goal is to win state,” said Senior infielder Wyatt Debels.Playoff success is important, and unfortunately it has evaded the Storm in recent years with summit exiting the playoffs in the first two rounds, or flat out missing the playoffs. However, things appear to be improving with Summit making it to the second round of the playoffs last year. Another new factor this season is Summit’s move back down to the 5A division that has brought Summit  great success in other sports. For Debrun, none of that matters stating that “The move to 5A shouldn’t affect the team in any significant way.” However, he addressed a popular talking point about the recent move that “Some people have been calling us a ‘fake 5A’ because we have the 6A experience and that will only help us in 5a. Of course, Mountain View and Bend High are in the same situation, and we have played them frequently so we know them pretty well.”

Preparation was a key aspect of the Storm’s offseason with fall workouts in October and preseason workouts starting in February. To help construct these workouts Summit enlisted the help of local gym, Boss Sports Performance and their ever-growing baseball program. These workouts lead to a greater sense of preparedness with Debels saying that the team “spent a lot of time hitting and fielding in the offseason to get ready for the season.” 

Summit’s program has recently expanded  with the addition of assistant coaches, George Mendazona, a former Ridgeview player who went on to play at Oregon State and Lubbock Christian. Also joining at the JV level is Summit graduate and Lane Community College and Campbellsville player, DJ Wilson Summit graduate and Marshall University player Drew Steelhammer. These additions will hopefully be what the Storm need to take the next step towards the state championship in June under first year head coach Aaron Boehm, after former head coach Richie Sexson took a position as the head coach of the Windy City Thunderbolts of the Frontier League. 

After a three day tryout process in late February the teams were selected. Things started well with the team having great chemistry and as Debels said “getting a lot closer and [we] spent time together off the field.”  However, a spring snowstorm brought practices indoors and put a pause on the normal schedule. The team made the most of the indoor practices utilizing the school’s gym with both varsity and JV sharing the space. Since snow has no allegiance, Summit also began competing for field space with the other local schools and played the first home games of the year at Vince Genna stadium home of the Bend Elks in the summer.