Denmark Gearing Up For Historic Season
Photo Credit: All Wisconsin Athletics
By Alex Strouf, All Wisconsin Athletics Lead Writer
DENMARK, Wis.--
High school baseball is truly amazing. If you've ever read or followed any of my work, you know how much I praise high school and college sports, because the love of the game at these levels is so evident that you can feel it. Four senior student-athletes from Denmark High School in Denmark, Wis. are taking their baseball careers to the next level following their senior seasons at Denmark.
Pitchers Jack Collins, Riley Pelischek, Tanner Umentum, and Derek Van Pay all have intentions and commitments to play at a University next season, Collins and Pelischek to North Dakota, Umentum to Chicago State, and Van Pay to a top-tier Division II school in St. Cloud State. "It's very special for us. We've been working down in my basement for the past few years with my dad," Jack Collins told me, "It's going to be a pretty special last ride before us four go off to college."
It's rare to see four guys from one team go to play college ball, and it's especially rare you see it from a school like Denmark. Denmark has an enrollment of under 500, and for four baseball players to go to the next level is almost unheard of.
Denmark was one of the top teams in the state already last year, reaching fifteen wins before any team in the Bay Conference. The Vikings are only losing three starters, one of which being last year's Bay Conference Player of the Year, catcher Alex Loberger. Now with Hortonville out of the conference and Menasha in, it could be a little bit of a break for the Vikings. "We've still got West De Pere and they're a great school," Tanner Umentum told me earlier this month.
Their road to state was cut short last season, losing in the regional final to rival Luxemburg-Casco. Denmark topped the Spartans twice already that year, but they got the best of them when it counted most.
This year is a state or nothing kind of year for Denmark, because this could be the best team not only Denmark has in a long time, but it could be the best team to come out of the Bay Conference in a long, long time.
"We should win a lot of games with pitching," Collins told me, "the big thing is bringing out hitting to the games."
Come March and April, it'll all start coming together. Winning a trip to state is never easy, and the Vikings learned that the hard way last spring.
