Andrew Olszewski wasn’t ready to quit playing baseball when his college eligibility was exhausted.
So he didn’t.
The 2017 River Valley Conference Player of the Year at Beecher started playing for his hometown Muskies in the summer after his freshman year at South Suburban.
Seven years later and three years out of college, Olszewski is still going strong for the Muskies as their center fielder and leadoff hitter.
What keeps him coming back?
“Just the competition level.” Olszewski said before the Muskies played the New Lenox Pumas on July 3. “I mean, it’s awesome. When I first joined the team, seeing guys that were out of school still playing on this team and just seeing the passion they had for the game — I thought I’d feel out of place when I got out of school.
“But this team luckily has a bunch of guys that were the same as me — that got out of school and they’re like. ‘I want to keep playing baseball.'”
Olszewski has stayed close to sports after college by taking a job as an athletic communication assistant at Purdue Northwest. But the desire to play never went away when his eligibility ran out after two years at South Suburban, an abbreviated COVID season at Southern Illinois and two seasons at Roosevelt.
“Seeing some of those guys (from Purdue Northwest) and coming out here and playing against them — it’s fun,” Olszewski said.
He’s still playing at a high level, too. Through July 3, Olszewski was leading the Muskies (13-6) in a bunch of offensive categories, including batting average (.500), runs (22), stolen bases (11) and on-base percentage (.585).
Muskies manager Fred LeSage has seen Olszewski grow as a player during his time with the Muskies.
“He’s a really good defensive center fielder and he was like that early on,” LeSage said. “He’s really matured as a hitter. … But he’s so good in the outfield, he covers so much ground and his speed is unbelievable.
“He’s so fast, with his long legs, he runs like a giraffe. And somebody was talking about how he steals bases — he takes four steps and slides.”
One of the biggest challenges for Olszewski and his older teammates is getting up to speed when the Muskies’ season starts in May. They’re not like players coming off high-school or college seasons where they’ve already had 75-100 at-bats.
“It’s tough, man,” Olszewski said. “Especially balancing the real world, (a) job … I just try to stay in the gym and find time to go to the batting cages whenever I can. I find myself sometimes even just standing in front of the mirror doing dry swings — just anything to keep my mind ready and ready to go.”
Olszewski does have some role models when it comes to playing semipro baseball as a veteran. His dad Steve is still playing in his 50s, and former Muskies teammate Todd Sippel did the same before retiring after last season.
“So yeah, when I see guys like (my dad) and Sip out there, I’m like, ‘More power to you,'” Olszewski said. “I hope I’m still able to do that when I’m at that age. … As long as the body holds up, I’m gonna try to be out here as much as possible.”