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A Natural Born Leader
Cave began coaching Schwarber when Kyle was only 12-years-old. Even at that age, Cave knew that Kyle had the potential to be something special. He shared a hilarious story with me about how the coaches had to pitch to Kyle behind an “L screen” to avoid taking a Schwarber screamer off the face.
“Most 12-year-olds you can pitch to and get a pretty good idea of where the balls going to go. Not with Kyle. We had to put an ‘L screen’ up to pitch to him because if you weren’t paying attention, he’d rifle one back at your head and because the ball was coming so fast, you had no chance to get out of the way.”
Schwarber’s bat has always carried some thunder but it was his “team first” mentality that always stuck out to Cave. He shared a story about Schwarber’s 12-year-old travel team playing in the National Little League Tournament in Cooperstown, NY when Schwarber was called on to pitch in the championship game. He pitched here and there throughout the course of the season but also spent a lot of time behind the plate. In ‘Middie Prides’ biggest game of the season however, Cave handed the ball to 12-year-old Kyle to pitch his team to victory.
And that’s exactly what he did.
“That’s just the type of kid he is. Kyle would do anything we asked him to do if it made the team better.”
Schwarber carried those same values to the varsity baseball team at Middletown where he played from 2008-2011. In those four years, he hit .408 with 18 home runs and 103 RBIs but it was the work that Schwarber put in to make himself a better player that impressed Cave the most. Cave, who is also an officer in the Ohio Army National Guard, ran a very structured, intense practice that would run anywhere from “3-4” hours. When most kids went straight home after a grueling practice, Cave said Schwarber would go directly to a nearby facility to do speed work because he “excels off not having a skill mastered.”
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What a mad man.
The speed training paid off and can best be seen on another platform of high school athletics — the football field. As many people know, Schwarber also excelled on the football field during his time at Middletown where he was an all-state selection at middle linebacker and had offers from numerous Division I schools.
Being a two-sport star turned him into a very popular guy in the halls of Middletown High, but Cave kept reiterating to me how impressive Kyle was not only as an athlete, but as a person. Cave taught Schwarber his sophomore year but it was an episode during his senior year that highlighted what type of kid Kyle Schwarber was. The story was so cool, I decided to take it word for word to share.
“Kyle was a Dean’s assistant during his senior year which pretty much meant he had to run errands at different points of the day. For some reason I can’t recall, we were having one of those “dress up days” for some event and that day was ‘Cowboy Day.’ The Dean sent Kyle to my room to drop something off and he showed up wearing one of those huge foam cowboy hats like they wore off of ‘Dumb and Dumber.’ He looked hilarious.
Kyle walked in and two of my students with physical disabilities thought his hat was hilarious and asked Kyle if they could wear his big foam hat. Without missing a beat, Kyle took the hat off, put it on the students head and then proceeded to sit down and talk with them for the remainder of the class.
He didn’t have to do that. It’s just the type of kid that he is.”
