Nick Laurenza, like many high school athletes, saw the offseason as means to take his game to the next level.
To do that, he wanted to take his body to the next level.
He wants to be a college baseball player, after all.
But while the typical player might lighten up the workout load in the offseason, Laurenza took a different approach. Starting in November, the Fort Vancouver junior instituted a strict and intense workout schedule that left little time for much else.
Five months later he’s emerged as the Trappers’ top hitter, and completed a transformation that head coach Owen Frasier labeled “program-changing.”
“I didn’t want to be scrawny,” Laurenza said. “I wanted to hit the ball, throw the ball.”
First, he quit basketball, figuring he could better use the time to prepare for the baseball season. In its place were a lifts, swimming and training on top of that.
Frasier saw Laurenza deliver on his goal, not missing a swimming practice or a workout. He was taken aback.
And once the season started, results poured in.
Through the first two weeks, Laurenza was batting .675. That average cooled down to .447 by mid-April, which according to Frasier is on track to be in the top-five season averages in school history, placing him ahead of some of the six MLB draftees the program has produced. He’s also three doubles away from the single-season school record (9).
“As long as I’ve been around high school athletes I’ve never seen a kid put in that amount of time,” Frasier said. “I’ve never seen a kid commit that much time and that much consistency. He did not miss a day.”
Each 15 of those pounds he gained have made all the difference.
During the winter season, he lifted for an hour for a weight training class during school, five days a week. Once school was out, he attended A3 training, a combination of full-body lifting and agility strengthening three days a week, then drove straight to swimming practice down the street from Fort.
Around the workouts, he devoured lean protein, and did so frequently throughout the day. Steak for dinner two-to-three times per week. Multiple protein bars throughout the day. Two protein shakes when he got home from swimming.
Admittedly, the grind wore on him.
During the first couple weeks he was so sore, that he had a hard time getting out of bed. He even starting doubting if he could do it all. But he kept his end goal, getting better, in mind, and that overruled the negative thoughts.
Once the baseball season started, he reaped the benefits.
“My first time throwing the ball I kept overthrowing it,” Laurenza said. “Why is this happening? I was able to throw way further than I could before.”
The Fort coaching staff took notice at Laurenza’s regimented offseason workout schedule that had him lifting three times per day.
But it wasn’t until they first saw the junior in the cages during winter training that they knew just how serious he was about getting bigger — and more importantly, better.
“Just the sound of the ball coming off the bat and the exit velocity and the speed at which the ball was coming off the bat, even in the winter time, we could tell he was going to have a really big year,” Frasier said.
Lorenzo is by no means the first high school athlete to spend the offseason putting up weights, and adding muscle mass. But his story stands alone in a long line of athletes Frasier has ever coached.
There was something different. It’s why Laurenza’s emergence as the Trappers’ top hitter has sparked praise from teammates.
Junior catcher Ezekiel Block and Laurenza worked out and hit together in the offseason. Block was impressed by the impact having more muscle had on his shortstop’s game.
“That’s mainly the thing that was holding him back – muscle,” Block said.
Sophomore Brodie Coates witnessed the improvement firsthand. His high school career not yet halfway finished, Coates sees Laurenza’s improvement as a roadmap.
“I know what I need to do to get better and get up there with him,” Coates, a pitcher and third baseman, said. “It’s cool to see him do that.”
Frasier said, perhaps most importantly, Laurenza’s offseason work is all a part of building a positive baseball culture — even program-changing.
“Guys see, here’s a guy who put in all the time, clearly is seeing the results, I want to do that,” Frasier said.
