Credit to Kaylin Mort

Senior Caden Ziha poses for a photo during media day.

Caden Ziha – Baseball

Q: What is your name and how do you spell it?

A: “Caden Ziha.”

Q: What position do you play?

A: “Shortstop.” 

Q: What have you been doing to prepare for the season?

A: “I did this thing called Swingforming.”

Q: What goals are you hoping to achieve this season?

A: “I want to hit like. 350 So I want, and I want to hit, like, for power more, so I want to hit a lot of doubles.”

Q: What will North need to improve to be successful this season?

A: “Definitely, like, scoring more runs… We just need to get over that hill and score more runs.” 

Q: What are you looking forward to this season?

A: “Definitely, like, all the conference games, especially playing Howell and Central, like rivalries and then, like, districts.” 

Q: What makes this season different from others?

A: “I think everybody’s, like, cares a lot more, and it means a lot more than them, so like it’s definitely gonna be more like gritty.”

Q: What makes club season different from school season? 

A: “Club is definitely more like chill, fun, like you’re in a hotel half the time and like preparing like mentally. I think it’s like a lot less not nerve-wrecking, but like there’s a lot less going on.” 

Q: What was the season like last year?

A: “It was very, like, senior led, and it was, like, just a fun atmosphere, but I think this year, like, people care more.” 

Q: Were there any big leaders on the team last year?

A: “Definitely Carter Stover.” 

Q: Has the team been preparing for the season together?

A: “Yeah, so they have open fields whenever it’s nice out and then they have lifting in the morning, three days a week.”

Q: What’s the team history like against Central?

A: “I know in my, like every year, we’ve been here, we’ve only lost one time.”

Q: Does anyone on your team have pregame rituals? 

A: “Some people like to pray before games, so it’s big, like faith is important to people. some people like wearing wrist tape before games or like, I don’t know, nothing like too crazy, just praying maybe sometimes going to the gas station before.”

Q: What was your favorite part of last season?

A: “Definitely, like me, I had a walk off, and that was probably my best moment, but like beating CBC was crazy, and like hanging in there with was pretty cool. And then beating Central is always fun.” 

Q: What was your favorite game of last season?

A: “Probably the Parkway West game where I hit the walk off.“

Q: What do you expect the team’s record to be this season?

A: “I mean, I guess to be about like .600 or be above. The goal’s to be above .500, but like shooting for the stars would be like .600.”

Q: What game are you most excited for this season?

A: “Definitely, you want to get back at CBC after losing districts, but definitely like Central are always big games.”

Q: What’s your favorite memory of high school baseball?

A: “Probably, just like growing in the program with all like the same amount of, like the same people and now making it to varsity, it’s like, we all made it.” 

Q: What will need to happen for North to come out on top this year?

A: “So our pitching needs to be, like, you need to keep us in games that our hitting definitely needs to, like, take a step up and, like, we need to score more runs and, like, execute.”

Q: Is there anything you would like to add?

A: “Okay, for the, like,’ What have I been doing to, or what have we been doing to prepare?’ I’ve been hitting multiple times like 4 to 5 times a week and lifting every single day of the week. I think a lot of people are too, like a lot of seniors especially. I think one of the big things is, like, for, ‘What’s making the season different?’ is like you have a ton of returning seniors who already played. Our infield is pretty rock solid and like our outfield we have like everybody’s, all the returning seniors who have experience and are playing. And that really puts like the juniors in a good spot to where like they don’t have to do too much. They can just play their game and if they have good years that helps the team, but last year most of our team was juniors and hadn’t played a lot. Like didn’t have much experience at all. And this year there’s a lot of varsity experience, and then the juniors, it puts them in a better position to play well.”

Q: Thank you for your time.

A: “Thank you”