Grass Lake baseball is preparing for the upcoming season
GRASS LAKE, Mich. — In the small towns of Jackson County, the high school baseball scene can be very quiet. However, one school has shined in the conference of only three other small schools, the private school Grass Lake High School.
The team is led by head coach Keith Sulen, who took over from Ben Hamilton last season. Hamilton had a coaching career record of 117 wins and 94 losses from 2007 to his departure. The pressure of being the new head coach of the team has not phased Coach Sulen. Sulen is excited to lead this team, not only as players but crafting them into successful young adults. He wants to make an impact on and off the field.
“My favorite part about being a coach for anything, I coach a few different sports throughout my career, is building the relationship with these guys and watching them succeed in high school and then succeed at the next level, whether it is in the workforce, college, or playing sports at the next level, just basically succeeding in life,” Coach Sulen said about his role as the head coach of the Grass Lake Warriors. “That is the ultimate ticket, and that is one of the goals each and every year to build boys into men, pretty much, and have them become responsible and successful young adults, so building those relationships is definitely the thing that excites me, and I’m very proud of the guys.”
The team has finished above .500 for the past two seasons, which included a second place 9-3 record behind a strong Napoleon High School Pirates team that finished first in the Cascade Conference, which lead to their first conference championship since the 2012 season.
For Coach Sulen, this is due to the boy’s leadership as athletes and individuals in society. Leadership was essential to what he had to say about his expectations about the 2022 season. Sulen spoke about the student-athletes as individuals and athletes and his goals for them.
“Pretty much the same as every year, just molding these young men into successful young men and trying to make them a successful person, in school with academics,” he said. “Being a good strong student-athlete is good, of course, improving their ball playing abilities, and someone who loves playing the game of baseball. The team goals are winning conference and making runs into the state tournament is where I see the team going in terms of those types of goals as well.”
With a young new roster, the team looks ready to defend their conference title. With the return of senior stand-out Brock Harms, the Warriors look to be in great shape with a young team that Coach Sulen feels is ready to defend their title.
“We have a young team,” Coach Sulen said. “Brock (Harms) is coming of an injury and was only able to bat last year due to an ACL injury that happened, but he was on varsity as a freshman. There was COVID-19 last year, but his junior year, he only had a handful of at-bats, but he came through at clutch times, helping to propel us to take the lead in one of the games against our conference opponents and ended up winning our conference for the first time since 2012, so he’s got some experience.”
In addition to Harms, the Warriors have several other players who are expected to make an impact this season despite being such a young team.
“The juniors who are on the team have limited experience, and we will have a couple of underclassmen as well, so this team has a mixture of experience, but we are definitely going to be young, but there is a lot of talent, and so we are going to be good, we are going to be able to compete, and I’m definitely excited for it,” Coach Sulen said. “These guys have already been putting in a lot of work in the offseason, which is exciting and getting me excited for the season.”
The young Warriors team looks primed to go into the preseason motivated and ready. The team has used their early school year preparing and doing drills, and it seems like the players are very invested in their workouts.
“Seeing the guys come in, seeing the guys who are committed, seeing the guys who are starting to love the grind is just awesome,” Coach Sulen said about the Warriors’ preseason progress. “You have to love the grind, and it is taxing, it is hard. We have full player workouts in the morning and on Sundays, and after school, we have some open gyms run by other coaches, and watching them compete is the objective. Seeing them excited and starting to continue to fall in love with the game or are starting to fall in love with the game is just awesome.”
Coach Sulen also discussed learning from other coaches and collaborating with fellow coaches in the Warriors’ conference as well.
“I just got back from a coach’s clinic this weekend, Michigan High School Baseball coach’s clinic and being around and learning from those coaches,” he said. “Learning different drills and philosophies, how certain coaches run their season, offseason and practices and its exciting for me personally.”
Grass Lake High School’s baseball season will begin in mid-April.
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