Athlete of the week: Sebastian Edenhofer

Sport: Baseball

Position: Outfielder

Year: Sophomore

Hometown: Elmhurst

High School: York

Lily Goodfellow: When did you start playing baseball?

Sebastian Edenhofer: As early as I could have, probably [when I was] five or six. I started with tee ball, but before that just [played] in my backyard with my dad and my brother.

LG: Do you have any advice for younger people starting out in baseball?

SE: I would say, you want to play the sport because you enjoy it. You don’t have to decide on one sport if you play multiple sports, but I found that for me, if I just focused on baseball and put everything into baseball that I would be more successful. Make sure you enjoy it first off, otherwise there’s no point in playing. 

LG: What are your goals with baseball?

SE: I want to play as long as I can. Hopefully transfer and keep playing. Obviously, I hope we have a successful season this year. We hope to win it all this year. I think we have the capability to do so, so that’s my current goal. We started out [in a tournament at Myrtle Beach] 7 and 2, I think that’s a good start for us.  

LG: Can you tell me more about the tournament in Myrtle Beach?

SE: We started out 0 and 2, which was frustrating because we were expecting to play well. We definitely felt like we should have won the first game. We dug ourselves in a hole early, but ended up coming back and losing by one, which was a heartbreaker for the first game. In the second game, we didn’t have much of a chance and got blown out. But we ended up playing that first team again later in the week and beat them, so it showed to us that we can win those games. So overall it was a successful week. We ended our last game with my teammate Jason Cousineau having a walk-off homerun, so that was a fun way to end it. The team played really well as a whole.

LG: What have you learned about teamwork from your experience with baseball?

SE: Baseball is probably one of the most team-oriented sports that there is. You can’t have one guy doing everything. I think there’s other sports where one guy can really take over, but in baseball you have nine guys in your lineup batting about four times each. It’s not one guy batting ten times and another guy batting two times. And then you obviously have pitching, hitting, and so many different aspects that play a role that other sports may not have. There’s teamwork in other sports as well, but I think in baseball it comes out more frequently and you see it in every single game.

LG: What are your greatest accomplishments in baseball?

SE: In high school I was an all-conference player, so that was cool, even though I only had one season because of COVID, which was unfortunate. I would say starting off this season right now, in terms of statistical success, it’s probably been my best start to a season so far. So I’m excited to see how this season goes. As a team I’d love to go and win it all.

LG: What are you most excited about for the upcoming season?

SE: It’s going to be fun being out there every day, playing with my teammates, and just learning how we are as a team as the season goes on. Through our first week at Myrtle Beach we got to see how certain players mesh in certain ways. As the season goes on we want to go as far as we can. Last year we fell short in terms of not winning our region. This year that’s the first goal, first get past our region and then move on from there. I think we definitely have the capability to do that, so I’m excited. 

LG: What is your favorite movie?

SE: I’m not big into movies at all. Fun fact, my brother is a manager at a movie theater, so I should be into movies. I would say I’m big into sports movies, so maybe Major League. That’s as far as I go with my movie knowledge. 

LG: So what do you like to do in your free time?

SE: I’m probably the most boring person you can interview. All I do is play baseball and anything, like working out, that will get me better at baseball. That’s really all I care about right now. I do make YouTube videos about sports, and I recently did trivia games with teammates of mine, so that was fun to do.

LG: What is the best vacation you’ve ever been on?

SE: When I was younger, we went to Disney World in Florida. That’s probably one of the most memorable vacations I’ve even been on. And I like to go anywhere that’s warm. 

LG: What is your favorite class right now?

SE: I’m in a Sports Management class. I think that’s something that I could pursue in the future, so it’s definitely something I’m interested in. And it’s not crazy-difficult, which is always nice. I don’t have to be studying for 24 hours a day to get an A in the class. 

LG: What one word best describes you?

SE: I would say competitive. Because in everything I do I’m trying to win and be competitive, and that’s just how I am. Even between me and my brother I’m always trying to win small things, and in baseball I’m super competitive. I think that’s why I’m having success playing baseball. I think if you ask anyone around me they’d say the same thing.