Wednesday, June 27th, 2018
From All-Ohio to Ohio State
New Bremen's Vonderhaar to join Buckeye baseball team
By Colin Foster
Photo by Colin Foster/The Daily Standard
New Bremen's Luke Vonderhaar, seated center, will join the Ohio State baseball program. Seated, from left, are dad Steve and mom Angie. Standing, from left, are New Bremen athletic director Gary Jones, New Bremen baseball coach Chad Wells and brother Aaron Vonderhaar.
NEW BREMEN - New Bremen's Luke Vonderhaar is a two-time All-Ohioan baseball player and he will now get the chance to compete for a roster spot with the Ohio State baseball program.
On Tuesday, Vonderhaar became the second player from New Bremen to attain Division I baseball status when he announced his intentions of joining the Buckeyes. Alex Leugers, a 2005 Cardinal graduate, is the other, having played for Xavier.
"It feels great to have the opportunity to compete. That's all I can ask for," Vonderhaar said. "For New Bremen, I hope I've done my part to inspire everyone else, especially in the baseball program, to shoot for the best. You never know what kind of player you can become until you reach my age. I think I'm still developing, so I'm continuing to work. I thought about quitting when I was 14 or 15 because I didn't think I was going to be good enough to keep playing. Then I hit a growth spurt, figured stuff out, met the right people, and things fell into place. Hopefully I left a good inspiration for the kids coming up."
Vonderhaar, who moved from Georgia to New Bremen two years ago, was a second team All-Ohio selection as a junior and a first team honoree as a senior. He also was named first team All-Midwest Athletic Conference in each of his two seasons and won The Daily Standard Dream Team Player of the Year as a senior.
As a junior, he hit .514 with 10 doubles, 26 runs scored and 24 RBIs. A back injury kept Vonderhaar sidelined in the summer entering his senior campaign, but he returned to hit .459 with nine doubles, three home runs, 31 runs scored and 30 RBIs as the Cardinals finished 17-7 overall and earned a state ranking in Division IV.
Vonderhaar had also been considering Miami (Ohio), Hillsdale College, along with a handful of Division II and III programs in Ohio. But Ohio State was where Vonderhaar wanted to be all along, he said.
Vonderhaar's club coach, Gregg Beemer, reached out to Ohio State's Greg Beals on his behalf. Vonderhaar later met with Beals and was informed he would have a chance to play his way onto the roster.
"Coach (Gregg) Beemer from my travel club team in Dayton, the Dayton Classics, kind of reached out to coach Beals on my behalf and told him about me," Vonderhaar explained. "I went up there and met with him, talked with him and got the opportunity to be part of the program come fall and compete for a roster spot there."
Vonderhaar isn't under athletic scholarship but hopes to reach that point one day. The New Bremen High School salutatorian did earn money for academics. He will major in finance. His first order of business in baseball is earning a spot on the fall roster of 35.
"I expect to compete day in and day out," he said. "I'm working hard right now, working to prepare myself for when the fall comes to go there and, you know, hit it in stride and compete for a spot on the corner, third base or first base. But I think I project anywhere they need me. I'll be the guy to do whatever is needed."
Vonderhaar wrote out a list of thank yous to the people who have helped him on his athletic journey. On that list included Beemer, Beals, New Bremen baseball coach Chad Wells, former New Bremen basketball coach Adam Dougherty, East Cobb baseball coach Keith Golden, Walker High School coaches Mike Brady and Bryce Brickhouse and hitting coach/ former Major League Baseball player Dwight Smith.
