Today: Mar 28, 2024

Redahan leads team with winning as inspiration

Jackson VolenecReporter

The baseball team at Southern has had a hot beginning to the spring 2020 season, with senior player Connor Redahan being a stand-out player who has contributed greatly to the team.

Redahan’s interest in baseball started at a young age like most boys, stepping to the mound at tee-ball. With influence from his father, he took to the sport, and was able to take advantage of the fact that he grew up on Brunswick School’s Upper School, an elite private school.

“I grew up on a private school property so we had a bunch of athletic fields to play on,” said Redahan. “[My dad] would always throw me batting practice, hit me ground balls, stuff like that.”

When looking at potential schools to play baseball at, Redahan said the fact that Southern was so close to home, as well as the coaching staff, played a major part in his choice.

“I was looking particularly at the NE10 schools. I talked to a couple different coaches,” said Redahan. “But when I first talked to Coach Shea, he was a big influence for me. He made it seem like it was a great school to come to, and I’m glad I came.”

Head coach Tim Shea has been a long-time member of the Southern community for nearly 50 years, first entering his college career here as a student and staying in the athletic department afterwards. Not only is he a good mediator of morale for the team, but he also has a history of bringing multiple teams to the championships and winning. The roster speaks very highly of his ability to keep the team operating successfully.

“Coach Shea is such a great guy, he’s definitely someone you’d want to play for,” said outfielder Nolan Cloutier, a senior. “He’s a great coach, a better person arguably. He brings a certain comfort level to the field when we play.”

Redahan has had a great start to this season, sitting at a high batting average of .367 and 15 runs so far, which has contributed to the positive win ratio of 6-3-1 the team is currently sporting. While the season is still early, his batting average is already improved on last years, which was .331., and he is on pace to beat his runs record for the same year — during the 2018-2019 season he helped score 35 runs in total.

Like many collegiate athletes, Redahan said the biggest adjustment he faced from high school and college was the speed and talent he would be playing with. Despite that, he said facing such adversity bettered him as a baseball player.

“Coming here was a big difference from high school, because everyone here was the best from their old team,” said Redahan. “The faster pace helped me improve for sure.”

Going into his fourth and final year of playing for Southern, Redahan said he has a few main goals in mind going into this season, which mainly center on winning.

“I definitely want to make the NE10 playoffs, I hope to win it,” said Redahan. “[For] personal goals, maybe just top my last year, but as a team, I want to focus on winning the championship.”

The team shares an intimate connection with their coach and among themselves, as Redahan recalls his fondest memories being here at Southern being with his fellow teammates.

“I think the comraderie of this team was the biggest takeaway of what I got out of it for sure,” said Redahan. “I just love the guys, going to practice and laughing is my favorite part of it.”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

Latest from Blog