Special three-sport athlete at Parkland earns coaches’ salute
As the District 11 tournaments in baseball and softball continue this weekend and through most of next week, many athletes and teams will be ending their seasons. In some cases, the players will be ending their careers with many never likely to play organized sports again.
Each student-athlete has their own story to tell about how hard they’ve worked, how much time they’ve spent, how much support they’ve received, and how much their participation has meant to them.
It’s never easy to take off the uniform the last time and say goodbye to teammates and coaches. The games that turn out to be farewells add an extra layer of emotion to the natural drama each game provides.
Each coach says that every athlete leaves a mark on their programs, but for some, those marks are indelible.
That’s how the coaches who have coached Parkland’s Jesse Ruisch feel about him.
Ruisch’s career is not over yet. He and the Trojans will be in action at noon Sunday in the District 11 6A semifinals and if the Trojans win that one, they’ll not only advance to Wednesday’s district finals but also the state baseball tournament.
Whether it ends Sunday or at Penn State on June 16, Ruisch’s career at Parkland was memorable and what he means to his teammates was on display when they celebrated after he was announced as Parkland’s senior male athlete of the year following Wednesday’s quarterfinal win over Easton.
Trojans baseball coach Kurt Weber echoed the sentiments of Parkland football coach Tim Moncman and basketball mentor Andy Stephens in his praise of Ruisch, who has had a stellar senior year by helping his school win a league title in football; Eastern Pennsylvania Conference, and District 11 titles in basketball; and he has a shot at district gold on the diamond.
“Jesse could have specialized in any one of the three sports he played if he wanted to, but he’s a great competitor who just loves to play and compete,” Weber said.
“He’s just a beast,” teammate Blake Barthol said. “He puts himself out for the team. He doesn’t care if he gets hurt as long as it helps the team win. He’s an athletic kid and a great guy.”
Weber remembers the night that the Parkland basketball team lost its PIAA 6A playoff opener lost to Penn Wood.
“The kids were heartbroken because they had just won the league and district titles and they weren’t expecting it,” Weber said. “He walked down the hallway outside the gym and as he passed me he said ‘I’ll see you tomorrow Coach.’ I had to tell him to take three days off or at least two days off and he said ‘Ok, I’ll think about it.’ But he was ready to come to baseball practice the next day. That’s him.”
Weber says he loves the multisport athletes because they are competitors and there were several of them playing in the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference including Whitehall’s Bryce Bashore and Allentown Central Catholic’s Griffin Patridge
“Jesse brings that competitive drive to us and it’s helpful to get a football guy on the team because they’re tougher in general and bring a different element,” Weber said. “I encourage my guys to play multiple sports.”
At a large school like Parkland where just making one varsity team is impressive, much less starting on three of them, Ruisch stands out.
“He’s an amazing kid who works his tail off,” Weber said. “He doesn’t say a whole lot, but you know he’s always going to give you his best. He’s not going to be afraid. Give me nine competitors like him and I’ll take my chances.”
The 6-foot-2 Ruisch, who was a wide receiver and free safety in football and a power forward in basketball, plays right field for Weber. He will play football at Susquehanna University but hasn’t ruled out playing baseball.
“Moving from sport to sport becomes a routine at some point and the coaches don’t mind because they like having multisport guys,” Ruisch said. “I don’t have a favorite sport. I love them all. I get enough rest. I’m always ready to go.”
Late nights at the ballpark
There have been some late nights at venues in both sports in recent weeks. The Emmaus-Nazareth EPC championship baseball game went 10 innings and stretched until almost 11:30 p.m. a few weeks ago on the heels of a lengthy Colonial League final, and then a District 11 softball tripleheader at Pine Grove Thursday night ended at 10:56 p.m.
The third game of the tripleheader — Northwestern Lehigh’s 7-3 win over Blue Mountain — began nearly two hours after it was scheduled to start.
It could be another late one Tuesday with District 11 scheduling four games at Patriots Park starting at noon with the last scheduled start slated for 6 p.m.
Contrary to popular belief that all high school softball games last just an hour and a half, a majority of games actually go closer to two hours, if not longer.
And with the field needing preparation time and the teams needing to get in warmups between contests, it’s probably better to allow 2 ½ hours between start times. Baseball is trying to schedule games three hours apart.
It’ll be interesting to see when the final out is recorded Tuesday night, and how late the last two teams, Whitehall and Parkland in this case, get back to their schools on what is still a school night.