Ben Wozniak, is currently a pitcher at Rufus King. He also swims, for the Generals.
"I thought it was really important to not specialize, and be an all-around athlete," Wozniak said. "I think my parents kind of stressed that my whole life. And I think baseball and swimming kind of crossover a lot. It's a very rotational sport."
The 7-time letter winner also leads his class with a 4.33 grade point average, which makes him one of 32 Wisconsin high school athletes honored with a WIAA scholar-athlete award.
"If you're going into it saying it's hard? It's going to be hard," Wozniak said. "But if you go into it saying this is easy? You know, you're going to have a different outlook on it."
Wozniak made state in the 200 and 500 for three straight seasons.
"I mean it's probably one of if not the most unforgiving sports that I've ever played," Wozniak said. "You know, you take one day off and you feel like you don't know how to swim anymore."
And says his success in the pool, transfers to the baseball diamond.
"Swimming is definitely more of an individual sport," Wozniak said. "You have relays but that's about it. So I think the team aspect is definitely what I like the most about baseball and just the different positions and what you have to do at each spot."
But if you think all of this will go to Ben's head, you're wrong. He has more goals to achieve.
"I don't think, it's really all me that's winning the award," Wozniak said."It's everyone that's helped me to get to this point. I don't really like to honor myself. I don't really think arrogance is a good trait at all for anyone. There's still room to go up, I guess. I'm kind of at like the base of the mountain even though it might seem like I'm at the peak. Like I said, it's relative. It's a mindset thing."
Ben Wozniak will attend the University of Wisconsin in the fall, where he'll be on the club swimming team along with a new sport, water polo, which he says combines the best of swim, and baseball.
It’s about time to watch on your time. Stream local news and weather 24/7 by searching for “TMJ4” on your device.
Available for download on Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and more.
