Wayne State College has a tradition of heavily recruiting baseball players from Omaha, most significantly, Millard South High School. This year the WSC baseball team has six athletes who graduated from Millard South.
They include Conlin Grady, Braden Cannon, Tyler Albert, Braden Sweet, Max Heard, and Grant Renken. WSC has already signed two more current seniors from Millard South to come play as a Wildcat next season.
Since so many players at Wayne State come from not only Millard South, but a large variety of the surrounding schools in Omaha, some of these athletes have been playing with and against each other for years.
Max Heard, a current Junior at WSC and outfielder, shares how it feels to play with some of the same people from T-ball to collegiate sports.
“It’s very unreal,” Heard said. “I’ll play in left field and the guy standing in front of me is my third baseman from freshman year of high school.”
Heard expressed how special the feeling was to continue playing with the people you’ve known your whole life. He said you begin to know how to work with them and get them ready before games.
Braden Cannon, a current senior at WSC who has played for the baseball team all four years, expressed his gratitude to be here in Wayne. He attributed some of his accomplishments here to the mentorship and guidance of Coach Alex Koch.
“I chose Wayne State because of Coach Koch and his commitment to me,” Cannon said. “He told me from day one that I would be a major contributor and have great success here.”
WSC Head Baseball Coach Alex Koch is a graduate of Millard South himself. As he continues to have many connections within the school, it’s easy for him to recruit there for his current team.
As an alumnus, he expects the best out of Millard South, and they have the records to prove it. Back when some members of the current WSC baseball team played for Millard South, they won the 2021 State Championship and got runner-up at State with a similar team composition the following season in 2022.
“You get the best players off the best teams in the state,” Koch said. “They are always one of the top two teams in the state.”
WSC recruits from Millard South because the head baseball coach has experienced firsthand how they turn out quality players. While Millard South is the number one most common alum of WSC baseball players right now, the majority of the team is still from the area.
“About 80% of our roster is from the metro,” Koch said. “The Omaha-Lincoln area is full of talented baseball players.”
The current WSC baseball team has players from other high schools in the area, such as Elkhorn, Elkhorn North, Bellevue West, Millard West, and Millard North. Moreover, the team also has players from Lincoln high schools, like Lincoln East.
With Omaha as a whole turning out so many talented athletes, it’s no wonder the Wildcat baseball team recruits so heavily there. The fact that these players have known each other for so long only makes the experience at a collegiate level more special for those who get to continue to play.
“It only makes your team better having guys who love seeing each other every day and competing, and having some familiar faces around makes it easier,” Cannon said.
