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When Jack Kelman was a freshman baseball player at Harvard-Westlake, he knew getting onto the field would take a lot of work.
“I realized quickly how many studs were in front of me,” Kelman said.
The budding catcher had three NCAA Division I players at the position in front of him. Thomas McCaffery was the senior that spring of 2020 and committed to UC Irvine. The spring of 2021, it was Bennett Markinson, who went on to play at Northwestern.
Kelman’s junior season, he had to wait again. The senior catcher last spring was standout Jacob Galloway, who is now at USC.
“Instead of thinking about how hard it would be to play or transferring, I took an approach that allowed me to learn from the catchers in front of me,” Kelman said. “They were going to great schools and knew so much. I stuck behind them for years, but I’d be nothing like the player I am today if it weren’t for them.”
It’s not easy to wait your turn, but Kelman did, and now he’s reaping the benefits of exercising patience for three years before becoming the Wolverines’ starting catcher. Amid a transfer-happy era in high school sports, where student-athlete and parents often pick up and move if the playing time isn’t adequate, Kelman’s attitude can be refreshing.
“I can’t say enough great things about Jack,” Harvard-Westlake coach Jared Halpert said. “He’s earned that spot and will join a lineage of really good starting catchers that came before him.”
Kelman will be the fourth straight Harvard-Westlake catcher to play college baseball. He’s headed east to play at New York University.
“Sitting was hard, but it definitely paid off,” he said.
Kelman has started all of Harvard-Westlake’s games and is batting .296 with 16 hits and 13 RBIs, which is second on the team.
“I would be lying if I said I wasn’t a little nervous at the beginning of the season, making…
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