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In a year that saw the Warsaw baseball team stacked to the gills with senior talent, it ended up being a junior that walked away from the campaign with one of the top honors an Indiana high school player can receive.
Third baseman Quinton Brock was recently named to the Indiana High School Baseball Coaches Association (IHSBCA) All-State team for his outstanding season. He’s just the fifth Tiger baseball player to ever achieve this honor and the first since Brandon LaFolliette and Sean Alderfer did so in 2004.
“My dad actually woke me up to show me the news and I was honestly pretty shocked,” Brock said. I knew that coach had nominated me but I really didn’t expect to actually win it. It was an awesome feeling.
The righty did just about everything for Warsaw both at the plate and in the field this past year, putting together an impressive batting average of .411 to go with 31 RBIs. Thirteen of his 39 hits went for extra bases, nine of which were doubles. He showed tremendous patience at the plate, walking 15 times to just 12 strikeouts. Once he got on base, he consistently put himself in scoring position, stealing 17 bases.
Prior to this year, Brock’s teammate Grady Nelson put him in touch with a coach from GSP Hitting in Fort Wayne, which is something Brock attributes his monster season to. He’s not the only one that thinks so. His head coach, Andy Manes, said that Brock’s hitting has been where the incoming senior has improved the most over the course of his career.
“I remember we had a game at NorthWood during his sophomore year and I could tell he was not happy with his hitting, he was somewhere in the .100s,” Manes explained. “I had to remind him, like dude, you’re a sophomore. Stuff is going to happen. He ended up finishing the year on a .333 stretch to boost that up and then he came into this year on fire. It really shows the type of work that this kid puts in.”
The work doesn’t stop for Brock, who attempted to play some summer ball before switching gears and preparing for his final football season for the Tigers. He was only able to manage one at bat before a fastball drilled him in the hand, breaking it and putting him out of action. Even with the setback, he has still been able to find other ways to try and improve.
“I love to lift weights so not being able to do that has been tough, but there’s a lot of mental reps and footwork drills I was still able to do,” the infielder said. “It should get a lot easier going forward.”
“We always say to put in the work and the results will follow and he’s a shining example of that,” Manes said. “But it’s about putting in the right work too, not just working to say you did. Quinton does a great job of making sure everything he does brings value.”
Luckily for head coach Bart Curtis and the rest of the Tiger gridiron group, Brock was cleared from his injury earlier this week and should not miss a beat in preparing for the upcoming season. He will serve as the team’s starting quarterback this year, replacing Drew Sullivan who will continue his career at Butler in the fall.
Brock, who spent most of last season in the backfield, won’t be making too much of a change. He has plenty of experience running the wishbone offense, filling in for an injured Sullivan multiple times over the last two seasons.
Brock was a crucial player for a Warsaw football team that made its first ever trip to the state finals this past fall.
Gary Nieter
While Brock does have some familiarity with the quarterback room, the same can’t be said about a large number of the teammates he will have this season. The Tigers graduated over 25 seniors last season, most of them making up the core of a group that made it all the way to the state championship game. Despite this, Brock is ready to tackle whatever challenges may lie ahead.
“There’s definitely going to be some guys that are going to need to step up in some key positions, some guys with not a whole lot of experience,” he said. “We’re going to need to buckle down and do things the right way. It falls on me to make sure guys know the plays, are in the right positions and really are in the best place to succeed.”
When the All-State selection returns to the diamond next spring, he’ll have a similar situation to deal with. A large number of players who have been mainstays on Warsaw’s back-to-back Northern Lakes Conference championships graduated this past spring. As will be the case in the fall, a lot will fall on Brock’s shoulders as a leader for Tiger baseball. His coach isn’t too worried about that being the case.
“If he could put together a season like he just did, I’d be perfectly happy with that,” Manes laughed. “Quinton takes care of himself, he knows his goals and what he has to do to achieve them. I’m looking forward to seeing what he brings to the table next spring.”
The one thing that Brock has yet to achieve on the diamond is postseason success, as the Tigers were knocked out in their sectional opener in each of the last two years. With one more chance to right that wrong, the third baseman plans on things going differently this season.
“I feel like a lot of our focus this past year was on the regular season. We wanted to get to 20 wins, we wanted to win the conference. I think this year we have to put a lot more weight on the playoffs and hope we can get hot at the right time,” he said.
Brock currently plans on playing college baseball. He has gotten numerous offers from NAIA schools but plans to keep his recruiting open.
