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Opposites attack at Centreville
Centreville seniors Mickey Bozek and Nick Ellis are polar opposites, both on and off the baseball field.Bozek, a three-year varsity player and a taskmaster who'll attend the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in the fall, has assumed the team's primary leadership duties, as the Wildcats are hamstrung by the fact that they only have two senior leaders.
Meanwhile, Ellis moved to the Centreville area two years ago after spending the majority of his life on the West Coast. He's a “life-of-the-party-type guy,” according to head coach Morgan Spencer, and Ellis will attend West Virginia University in the fall to focus on engineering.
Regardless of their divergent goals and personalities, Bozek and Ellis have been saddled with the task of leading an inexperienced Centreville team, teaching such lessons as how to best represent your school while still trying to drive a looping two-strike curveball to the opposite field.
“It's definitely been a big challenge because I think we have more sophomores than anything,” said Bozek, who was hitting .286 with three home runs and 13 RBIs prior to Wednesday's regular season finale against Fairfax. “You're representing Centreville once you put on that jersey, so you want to represent that in a good way.”
Bozek is an outfielder by trade, and even pitches on occasion when he's needed. Growing up in Seattle, Ellis spent most of his formative years as a catcher but made the switch to third base after a torn anterior cruciate ligament cut his junior season short.
At a time when it would've been understandable to call it a career and just worry about making friends outside of baseball, Ellis continued to rehabilitate his knee, believing that he still had something.
“It was definitely hard trying to learn a new position and still be a leader there,” said Ellis, who has posted a .270 batting average. “As a leader, people look up to me and expect me to do the best I can, and all I really can do is try my hardest.”
Bozek, Ellis and Spencer all admit that they would've liked to have won a few more games this year, but with the aforementioned group of talented underclassmen, this year's importance has far exceeded Centreville's won-loss record.
Spencer handed out an itinerary during a practice on Tuesday afternoon, breaking his team's workout into five- or 10- minute snippets of baseball fundamentals.
“I think the biggest thing is that these guys are learning how important it is to focus on every pitch,” said Spencer. “We try to leave no stone unturned in practice.”
Behind the batter's box on Tuesday afternoon, both players' jersey numbers had been sprayed in white paint on the green grass.
The two juxtaposed numbers left over from Monday's Senior Night represented two different players, two different personalities -- both working together toward a common goal.
“It's nice to have one guy that makes everything a good time, and another guy who has a good time with it, but is in all-business mode,” Spencer said. “They balance out each other very well ... which is pretty cool.”
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