Liam Munshi
There are lots of similarities between a baseball and the Canadian flag—they are both red and white and both represent a country. Liam Munshi knows both of these items well, having played baseball in Toronto before moving to Jackson to pitch for the Bulldogs.
Along with the similarities, there are many things that differ between playing baseball in Toronto and playing baseball in Jackson.
“It’s easier to play down here than it was up north,” Munshi said. “Up there, it gets almost unplayable around October. It’s freezing, and no one wants to play. It’s miserable and stays that way until April.”
This only left Munshi five or six months of baseball a year, and he’s grateful for the change, saying “It’s always perfect baseball weather down here.”
While the weather has been ideal for Munshi to play baseball, he has had other challenges this year. Specifically, he has suffered from the resurfacing of multiple high school baseball injuries.
One of his recurring injuries throughout baseball started when he was 14. He had a problem with his arm, and countless doctors diagnosed the problem as tendinitis. The problems continued on and off for the next few years, but it got so bad that he had to come out of his second game with the Bulldogs.
After visiting another doctor, the problem was diagnosed as a plica, a common ailment of runners. In layman’s terms: a part of the elbow becomes irritated, enlarged or inflamed. This presents a huge problem for an athlete.
“I’ve been really limited on how much I can do in practice,” he said. “And I had to stop throwing completely for a while until the doctor gave me the right diagnosis.”
The best option for a plica is surgery and the recovery period is three months. While Liam is disappointed with the time he will not be able to practice baseball, he is relieved to finally understand why his pitching speed has slowly decreased since middle school and looks forward to next year.
“I’m hoping to come back better than ever,” he said. Munshi will soon be a familiar face on the pitcher’s mound.
Sami Weber
Sami Weber, a junior on the golf team, hails from Metropolis, Illinois, the namesake of the hometown of Superman. While Sami makes no claims to be a superhero, Union’s golf team appreciates her skills in golf as much as the people of Metropolis appreciate Superman defeating Lex Luthor.
“Union was the first college I visited,” Weber said. “And as soon as I stepped on campus, I knew it was where I needed to be.”
She cancelled all other college visits, and shortly after, enrolled at Union. The main reason she made her decision was because of the coaching staff.
“The difference at Union is that the coaches really do care about you,” she said. “Instead of treating you like you’re just part of the team, they care about you personally, and care how you’re doing in school, not just how you’re doing on the course.”
Even though Weber has played golf competitively since the summer before her freshman year, she has found new challenges in golf at a collegiate level—especially when it comes to balancing her education.
“Being at college, it’s a lot different than high school, in that your studies are more important,” she said.
