Carson Howard – Baseball
Q: What is your name and how do you spell it?
A: “Carson Howard”
Q: What position do you play?
A: “I’m a pitcher and I play the corner infield.”
Q: What have you been doing to prepare for the season?
A: “Just been lifting a lot, getting into the gym, and then also going down to my facility, and hitting and throwing a ton, just getting my arm prepped and get back into hitting.”
Q: What goals are you hoping to achieve this season?
A: “Just keep my batting average above .300, get ready for college, and also just want a district championship that we’ve came close to last year. I just overall have a good year for my senior year.”
Q: What will North need to improve to be successful this season?
A: “I think we just need to play as a team. We need to play together. Our hitting will be one of the things, keys to success, because our defense is already good and we have the pitching to make it.”
Q: What makes this season different from others?
A: “It’s my senior season, so obviously there’s more on the line for me. I feel like I want to have a really good year and if I don’t, it’s gonna be disappointing for myself and if I get 32 more hits, I’ve gotten 100 varsity career hits. So it’s a big key factor I’m looking forward to. “
Q: What makes club season different from school season?
A: “That’s a lot more recruiting bias, so like you’re playing in front of coaches, you got ton of coaches out there. You’re playing with people from all over the state of Missouri and Kansas, like I did with my summer team, and it’s overall just a more fun experience, and you’re playing really good talent all over the country.”
Q: What was the season like last year?
A: “It was really fun. I mean, we had a 10 game win streak and then we kind of fell off, but like the games that we fell off and were really close and we played really solid baseball. We just couldn’t get the result that we wanted.”
Q: Were there any big leaders on the team last year?
A: “Carter Stover, for sure. I mean, me and him just, like, I looked up to him all 3 years just being able to, like, play with him and be a guy next to him, and he was a dog, and when we lost him, we kind of felt that impact. So definitely him.”
Q: Has the team been preparing for the season together?
A: “Yeah, I think we have. I mean, we’re looking forward to it. We set our goals. We know what we want to do as a team, and if we can achieve those goals, I think it’s a pretty successful year.”
Q: What’s the team history like against Central?
A: “Oh, I mean, it goes either way. I mean, last year we split them, we should have beat both of them. We should have won both games. Obviously. It’s more of a rivalry for us. And we look forward to that game, especially me, because I know I had a couple kids on that team and they like to talk and just be able to shut them down is what the key factors for this year.”
Q: Does anyone on your team have pregame rituals?
A: “I don’t really pay attention to that. I mean, we kind of just go with our own thing. If you ever have superstition, you do that. I mean, I kind of just try to lock in and focus on my part, especially with pitching and hitting.”
Q: What was your favorite part of last season?
A: “Definitely like the District Championship game or not the championship, but like semifinals, just a fun game. I went 3 for 3 and it was high stakes, and just being able in that game, and then also Francis Howell, when I went 7 innings, and shut them down pretty much, and also went 2 for 3 off of a Mizzou guy. So that was probably those two games are probably my favorite. “
Q: Was that your favorite game of last season?
A: “Yeah.”
Q: What do you expect the team’s record to be this season?
A: “I think we’ll be around .500, maybe even above, I think, if we put our heads to it, we can get to a winning season, but if we don’t, we can fall off, which I hope we don’t, we won’t be on, we’ll be under .500.”
Q: What game are you most excited for this season?
A: “Definitely the Central games. I mean, it’s kind of our senior years when we’re right over this year. We like to, there’s a little bit of history with our grade, so it’d be nice to sweep them and get the two wins out of that.”
Q: What college will you be going to?
A: “Going to East Central College, a JUCO in Union, Missouri.”
Q: What’s your favorite memory of high school baseball?
A: “Probably just being able to have fun with my friends, play with people that you don’t, we don’t get to play with and just being able to have the opportunity to play varsity four years in a row. So definitely that and then just being around great people.”
Q: What will need to happen for North to come out on top this year?
A: “We just got to play together. We gotta do the simple things right, not try to overdo things, and just be fine as a group, and hit, play defense, throw strikes, get outs. all we need.”
Q: Is there anything that you would like to add?
A: “No”
Q: Thank you for your time.
A: “No problem.”
