Top 10 Stories of 2015: No. 6 Arrowhead Shakes Up WIAA Moving To Spring Baseball

December 23, 2015

By Matt Huck
Area Scout

Over the next few weeks in addition to highlighting the Top 10 Player Profiles of 2015, we will also highlight the Top 10 Stories in Wisconsin High School Baseball during 2015.

The spring of 2015 put Arrowhead HS in the crosshairs of WIAA baseball. Coming in as the Preseason No. 1 team, they had a target on their back from the beginning as they moved from summer to spring baseball and essentially added six Division I prospects to their roster who otherwise wouldn't play high school baseball with Arrowhed in the summer. Arrowhead lived up to the hype going 26-2 on the season and winning the Wisconsin Little Ten Conference with a perfect 18-0 record. They ultimately fell short of winning state, losing to Milwaukee Reagan in the Sectional Final. The Warhawks will again be one of the preseason favorites in 2016 as they bring back Florida commit Nate Brown, Illinois commit Ryan Schmitt, Michigan commit Dominic Clementi, and Indiana commit Jeff Holtz.

By Steve Nielsen
Scouting Director – Wisconsin/Illinois

The debate over spring and summer baseball always seems to be a hit topic, and it got even hotter when Arrowhead and Catholic Memorial confirmed they will be moving to spring baseball in 2015.

We’ve been saying it for a while now that Arrowhead has some of the best baseball players in the state walking their hallways, unfortunately none of them are playing high school baseball. Reason being is players who play with highly competitive travel teams in the summer get more opportunities to showcase themselves in front of college recruiters in high level tournaments all across the country. So for the player it makes sense to forgo playing summer high school baseball.

For Arrowhead and Catholic Memorial moving to spring baseball will allow them to compete at full strength all season. All three teams will compete in the Little Ten Conference making it even a stronger baseball conference than it already is.

As far as the spring baseball landscape goes for 2015, Arrowhead will be coming in as a strong favorite to contend for a state championship. In 2015 Arrowhead will boast a roster that will see three pitchers that could be sitting in the upper 80’s by then. Currently Jack Bredeson (2015), Nathan Brown (2016) and Ryan Schmitt (2016) all have touched 87 mph. Brown and Schmitt are both top 10 prospects in the Class of 2016. Arrowhead will also feature one of the top offensive threats in the 2016 class in outfielder Dominic Clementi. Clementi is already committed to Michigan and the previously mentioned Arrowhead prospects could easily be joining him as Division 1 commits.

It will be interesting to see how many more programs will follow suit in the years to come. As programs in summer baseball struggle to keep their top players it will only be a matter of time before the season as a whole become extinct.