Sean McDonald
Staff Writer
Playing a professional sport is something only a handful of people have the opportunity to do. It requires talent, hard work, and some luck here and there. Mira Costa alumni Drew Van Orden is in the process of making his journey there.
Van Orden grew up in Manhattan Beach, where he was very involved in athletics from a young age. Van Orden played a variety of sports early on, including baseball and basketball; however, he did not start focusing on one sport until high school, which ultimately ended up being baseball.
“When I was younger I played a lot of sports like baseball, basketball, and others, but once I got into high school, I really started to focus on baseball,” Van Orden said.
At the beginning of high school, Van Orden had to work to maintain his spot on the team, he wasn’t able to jump to varsity and immediately start pitching because he was surrounded by a number of other talented players.
“In my freshman year, I was more of a middle of the pack player, and definitely had to put some effort into being a key contributor,” Van Orden said.
It wasn’t until Van Orden’s junior year that playing baseball at the next level seemed like a realistic possibility. Van Orden’s goal was to play baseball at a strong academic school.
“My junior year was when I really noticed; I was getting physically stronger and realized that I could have the potential to play college baseball,” Van Orden said. “I still wanted to make sure that I could get into a good academic school, and play baseball too.”
Drew had a very successful varsity career, leading his team to one of the best CIF runs in Costa baseball history, reaching the CIF semi-final in 2010 where they lost on a walk off home run.
“After playing baseball at Costa, I got a chance to play baseball at Duke, which was a good balance of what I wanted in academics and athletics,” Van Orden said.
Drew was a four year pitcher at Duke, and after his senior year he declared for the draft. He was picked in the fifth round of the 2014 MLB Draft by the Washington Nationals, and recently finished his first minor league season, making the Single A all star team.
“Getting to be an all star in my first season was a really cool experience, I met some really cool guys and had a lot of fun,” Van Orden said. “I’m really looking forward to what comes next.”
Van Orden is taking a break right now to rest his arm, but will be working on strength and conditioning. He returns to the Minor League scene in February, where he will find out whether he gets to make the jump up to a higher level of the minor leagues.
“It is going to be really nice to rest my arm for a while because that is the most I have thrown in a long time over a season, but it will be great to get back on the field come February,” Van Orden said.
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