Chutko a fixture in North Hills’ playoff runs in several sports
While being a multi-sport athlete stretched his schedule thin, he never faced pressure from his coaches to drop other sports and focus on theirs.
In fact, challenging himself to refine different skill sets may have helped Chutko to succeed on different playing fields, baseball coach Randy Miller said.
“There’s something in each of those sports that help you develop, whether it’s hand-eye coordination, whether it’s flexibility, all the different facets that you need in an athlete,” Miller said.
After last season, Miller had a conversation with Chutko about what he would need out of him senior year. Chutko had already played catcher for two seasons, and was college-bound at that position, but the team needed him at first base and as a reliever on the mound, too.
“A lot of kids may have said ‘I’m going to college. Put me at catcher,’” Miller said.
“That might be a problem. Not Luke. Luke just looked at me and goes ‘Coach, wherever you need me, wherever I can help the team.’”
Through the Indians’ 20-2 defeat of Obama Academy on April 28, Chutko has yet to allow an earned run.
Being a successful multisport athlete helped him learn to manage his time, of course. According to his dad, Mark Chutko, it also helped him become a leader and take on more responsibility.
“He wasn’t leaning on someone else, people were more leaning on him,” his dad said.
“And I think that’s a reflection just on the leader that he was.”
As baseball season winds down, Chutko’s three- or four-sport days at North Hills draw to a close and he steps closer to playing baseball at Allegheny. He doesn’t know how he feels about that yet.
But he sees how his time as a North Hills athlete shaped his perspective.
“It has made me the man I am today,” Chutko said. “I’m a lot more grateful for a lot of things than I was before, because not a lot of kids get the opportunity that I’ve gotten. I realize how lucky I am to play three, four sports at the highest level in high school.”