Sports Spotlight: Cole Baumiller

No matter which high school sport you play in the state of North Dakota, you’re always bound to have some sort of a long drive, most commonly for road trips.

It's a unique situation, "but it's all worth it," said Cole Baumiller, Hazelton-Moffit-Braddock High School junior.

Baumiller is from Hazelton and makes the hour commute everyday for baseball.

"Today I left at, about 11:03 probably,” Baumiller said. “The school helps me out a lot. They allow me to leave a little bit early so I can make it to practice. I don't know, it's, it's not too bad. Usually just listen to music, or, I don't know, sometimes when I'm really tired, I have to chew gum or something just so I don't like, get a little sleepy."

But here's the thing, Baumiller doesn't attend Shiloh Christian. You might remember him representing maroon and gold as a Linton-HMB Lion during the football and basketball seasons. Come spring, he's a Skyhawk.

"It's pretty fun when I get to be with, you know, play against some guys, but you know, we're really competitive and we like to joke about it. It's fun when, you know, you can come up here and play with these guys, and these guys are awesome, they make it fun, they make you want to come up here and play," Baumiller said.

Baumiller isn't the only member of his family who has made the seasonal commute. Both of his brothers played for the Skyhawks as well.

"It's definitely a lot boring now that I don't have anybody to ride with me, and it was fun when my brother drove because I could just sleep in the passenger’s seat. Now I've got to do the driving so, it gets a little boring," Baumiller said.

Shiloh Baseball Coach Aric Lee said, "I tip my cap to those guys that drive and have that passion to drive and make the commitment to take that time out of their day to come and play here with us. That shows that they love the game of baseball and are willing to put forth a lot of extra effort that the rest of the teammates don't have to do."

While Baumiller is finishing up his junior year as both a Lion and a Skyhawk, the thought of not being involved in sports is hard to comprehend.

"Yeah, it's definitely flown by. I've been playing since my eighth grade year, so it's crazy to think that I have one more year left, and this will be over before I know it. I kind of want to keep sports up afterwards. It's fun, I love competing, I'm very competitive, so, I just want to keep it up."

For now, he'll keep on making the daily commute.

Baumiller and the Skyhawks have just three games remaining before the region tournament. They play Hettinger-Scranton tomorrow.