If there is one thing that La Porte, Indiana is known for, it is the high school’s baseball program. Slicer baseball has had quite the reputation for winning for the past forty-some years. This is due, in large part, to the strong coaching talents of Ken Schreiber.
Schreiber, who coached at LPHS for over 38 years, ended his tenure with an impressive record of 1010 wins and a mere 217 losses.
In 1967, when LPHS won the first Indiana High School State Championship, the sport became a huge deal in the La Porte community. Since then, La Porte has won seven more state championships (1971, 1976, 1982, 1987, 1990, 1992, and 2000) and has been named the National Champions in 1987. In addition to the big championship wins, the team has also continued to consistently win 20 out of their 28 games year after year.
For the last few years, however, the team has hit a rough patch, unable to reach the normal expectations of the La Porte baseball program. In 2012 the team’s record was 12-19, and in 2013 the record was 10-20, a record normally reversed in favor of the Slicers.
“I grew up going to the Slicer games,” shared senior catcher Matt Pritz, “and I remember watching the older kids play and seeing how good they were. But once I got into high school, it was different. I played varsity for the first time when I was a sophomore, and we were 10-20 that year, when in the years past 20-10 was an average year. It wasn't Slicer baseball, and I just remember never wanting to go through a season like that again.”
One Slicer who knows how it feels to experience both ends of the LPHS baseball spectrum is Scott Upp, former Slicer baseball player and current head coach of the team. He played under the rule of Schreiber, and he has been coaching for the last 25 and a half years.
“Those two years we struggled,” he admitted. “We did a lot of things right, but we just didn’t have the wins to show for it. I take the blame for it, though, because the players were great kids and worked hard, no different from any other year. It just didn’t equate to wins, and other years it has.”
In a sport where getting three hits out of ten at bats is considered extremely successful, baseball is quite the rollercoaster. The most important thing that a player can do is stay mentally positive and focused on the game.
Upp explained, “If you score a 30 percent on a test, tell me if you’re happy about that. Most people are not. But in baseball if you get a three out of ten, you’re a success. But what that means is you failed seven out of ten times, and the biggest difference, to me, is how players handle the seven times that they fail.”
Fortunately, the Slicers have been able to find that mental focus and get back on track this season. As of May 9, 2015, their record is 17-4, and they have high hopes for the remainder of the season.
Senior player Matt Haines shared, “This season, so far, has been thrilling. The off-season was definitely rigorous, but it is allowing us to play at the level we are. My favorite thing about this season is the potential we have to make a deep tournament run, and being able to share that with the kids I have played with since I was young makes it that much better.”
The group’s success, no doubt, has the great teamwork of the players to thank as well. With seven talented seniors and a number of great junior leaders, this group of young men has become quite the force to be reckoned with.
Pritz said, “I love playing as a team and being able to compete with my best friends every day. The ability to have fun while playing your favorite sport is a feeling like no other.”
Whether the Slicers have found success through their team collaboration, their hard work, or their mental toughness, they have all shown La Porte that the boys are back and that the diamond is a place where magic happens.
“This year’s team is probably one of the closest-knit groups that I’ve been around in a while,” Upp stated. “I hope that all of their comradery, all of their hard work in the off-season, and all of the buildup to get to this season pays off for them in the end. But it’s not always about wins and losses. There’s a bigger picture here that needs to be looked at, and I just hope, in the end, that the big picture is painted well for them.”
It is absolutely wonderful that the Slicer boys have gotten back into the swing of things, but the score of the game or the record of the season is not always the most important thing. The most important thing is that the kids are having fun, something that they seem to be accomplishing as well.