The recent blizzard conditions have been hard on the Washburn baseball team. They’ve been forced inside for practice more often than not due to the field being covered in snow for the majority of the last two weeks.

Despite the conditions and many schedule changes the team has still played 11 games to start the year. This year’s team is loaded with upperclassmen to lead the way which includes ten seniors.

Included in those seniors is infielder Kolton Meyer.

Meyer was born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, but moved to Lincoln, Nebraska, where he attended high school. He went to high school at Norris where he enjoyed a successful four year career.

He was apart of three state tournament teams that included a state championship his sophomore year and a state runner-up finish his senior year.

When it came time for college, Meyer decided to attend Cloud County Community College in Concordia, Kansas. He spent two seasons as a Thunderbird, only playing during one season however. During that season he hit 13 home runs and had 47 RBI’s.

After his time at community college Meyer had some decisions to make.

“I was looking for a place to play,” said Meyer. “And I’ve got a lot of family from Topeka. I knew this program was good, so I emailed Coach Douglas and got lucky enough he emailed me back.”

Meyer is a competitor and didn’t want to stop playing when it came time to transfer.

“I like how it’s a team game,” said Meyer. “But every pitch is a battle between you and the pitcher or you and that hitter. It’s a very individualized team sport, so it’s full of a lot of personal accomplishment but at the same time when you succeed the whole team succeeds.”

Meyer’s competitive nature came from his childhood of running around playing sports with his five siblings, Brylie, Grayson, Landon, Gracie and Wyatt.

Once Meyer’s playing days are over, he hopes to assume the role of helping players succeed to the overall team’s success. He wants to be an educator of some sort, and be a baseball or softball coach at the high school or junior college level.

Meyer is majoring in history education, so he said he would be perfectly alright with assuming a teaching job at the high school level partnered with a coaching position.

When Meyer is not in the classroom or at practice he likes to take it easy and not get to wild in his free time. He says when he was younger he use to be a little more stupid, but now he spends his time playing video games, doing his homework and trying to stay off his feet.

On the field though, Meyer is all business and will work extremely hard to get better and to lead his teammates.

Fellow senior Nate Lorenzen has seen first hand the type of teammate that Meyer is.

“Kolton Meyer is a kid who always works hard,” said Lorenzen. “No matter what the situation is he’s always there for you as a teammate. He’s always there as a leader and he’s someone the younger guys should definitely look up to because he does everything the right way.”

Meyer and his teammates will look to continue to work hard in preparation for their home opener on Friday, March 1 against Pitt State starting at 3 p.m. at Falley Field.