SMHS BASEBALL
Seniors Caleb Gomez, Cole Wiatrek and Charlie Helgeson all signed their letters of intent to play baseball at the collegiate level “It’s a tribute to our community, the contributions that our kids and the parents put in and just the hard work put in every day,” Head Coach Bryan Webb said. “It’s not about me or anything else. It’s about what they do and how their parents work to get where they need to be. The kids are putting in work day in and day out. Colleges are realizing that we’ve got good athletes down here, and we’ve got a great baseball program.”
Helgeson signed his letter of intent to play for Jefferson Community College in New York.
“Just shows a lot of hard work, commitment and going through everything that takes the steps to get here,” Helgeson said. “I’m happy for not just me, but for my family and everyone involved in it.” On choosing Jefferson, Helgeson found an opportunity to connect with the state of New York due to his family ties.
“I have family roots from New York,” Helgeson said. “My sister is in upstate New York. I really love just the whole state of New York and I’m a Mets fan, my favorite baseball team. So everything about New York kind of attracts me and it just seems like a great opportunity for me.”
Playing college baseball has been a dream of Helgeson and now he has a chance to fulfill that dream.
“It means so much to me,” Helgeson said. “It just proves that I could stay with what I committed to a long time ago and what I wanted to achieve all those years ago. When I started playing baseball and if I could tell myself when I was young that you’d be playing college baseball, he’d be really happy.”
Wiatrek and Gomez both signed their letters of intent to National Park College in Arkansas.
It was a long time coming for Wiatrek whose passion for baseball started in his grandparents’ front yard.
“It’s just really just a special day for my family and everybody that helped me being here,” Wiatrek said. ”My grandparents have been throwing me the wiffle ball in the front yard since I was two years old, so this day is really for them more than me. So I’m just happy to see everybody here and all my family here to support me.”
When Wiatrek chose National Park College, the senior talked about how the campus, the facilities and the coaching staff were all a big part of his decision.
“When I went up there, the campus was beautiful [being in] Arkansas and the Ozark Mountains,” Wiatrek said. “They have newer schools, so their campus is pretty new. Dorms are top-notch and their field is just really great. They also have a coach that is a former MLB player so he has a lot of insight on pitching.”
On playing in the college baseball, it is the next part of Wiatrek’s journey in his baseball career.
“It’s just a step in the process,” Wiatrek said. “You always have to make that next step. You always have to keep progressing forward and taking that step. So all those games matter and their learning experience that when you get to high school you can apply that learning and that you can go on to play college baseball.”
Gomez’s journey to signing his national letter of intent was a long one for the senior who was recovering from a serious shoulder injury.
“It feels great all the work I put in coming back from injury from a labrum tear,” Gomez said. “It feels great to finally know I’m going somewhere. So I was pretty nervous from the labrum tear. I thought I couldn’t find anywhere to go then I found National Park, so that’s great.”
On choosing National Park, Gomez made a great connection with the staff as well as enjoying the campus.
“The first day, I stepped on campus, just felt like the coaching staff was great,” Gomez said. Coach Rich Thompson was great. The people there were great and the location is amazing. That’s what sold it for me.”
Despite going through his severe injury, the process was made easier for Gomez with his older brother, Gavin Gomez, helping him.
“He helped me a lot in the recruitment process,” Gomez said. ”When I first started getting looked at, he helped me send stuff out to coaches. He had a big impact in my process and just helped me since I was little.”
With Gomez and Wiatrek both heading to National Park, the duo is excited to begin their transition to college baseball, having been friends for many years.
“We’ve been best friends since we were 12 years old,” Wiatrek said. So having him is going to make the college experience a lot more a lot better. Also he has somebody do a throw over there, so it’s pretty pretty nice.”
“It’s great, he’s one of my good friends,” Gomez said. “We play golf every week, it’s going to be great up there. He’s going to be my roommate so it should be pretty fun up there.”
