Highland junior Kirk Dapshis is all in as a catcher.
He first went behind the plate as a freshman after entering high school as an outfielder. Then he moved to first base — a position he had never played — last season.
But he’s entrenched as the successor to standout catcher Ryan Gordon, who was a three-year starter at the position.
“Outfield is long gone,” Dapshis said. “Catching is my main position right now, and it will continue to be my main position. If I go to college, that’s where I’ll be. I don’t see myself going back into that outfield.”
Nor does Highland coach Zak Pizer.
“For him to take over, he’s made great strides,” Pizer said of Dapshis. “In the beginning, I was like, ‘Oh, we’re missing Gordo.’ But we trust Kirk, and now we’re 13 games in, and the work he’s put in to be a catcher is tremendous. It’s leaps and bounds to what he was last year. It’s like, ‘Wow, OK, you can catch at this level.’”
Senior pitcher Caden VanderMeyden had his doubts about Dapshis, who quickly erased them.
“I thought it would be hard this year because our catcher last year was good,” VanderMeyden said. “I thought him coming in, it was going to be hard because we were starting new. But we get along good, and we work together. He sets up right. He knows what he’s doing.
“He’s been a good person in the dugout, too, communicating with everyone.”
Pizer, a 2018 Highland graduate and former assistant in his second season as coach, praised Dapshis’ work ethic in all endeavors.
“He’s always staying after practice,” Pizer said. “He’s just one of those guys who’s always here trying to perfect his craft, and I applaud him for it. He wants to get to that next level, and our goal is to get him to that next level.”
The goal last season for Dapshis, who is hitting .219 with a team-high eight RBIs for the Trojans (4-9, 0-8) as they compete in the unforgiving Northwest Crossroads Conference, was to reach a proficient level at first base. With Gordon catching, Pizer had other ideas for Dapshis.
“He called me into his room about a week and a half prior to the season starting, and he asked me if I could play first base,” Dapshis said. “And I was honest with him. I told him ‘no.’ Well, he told me I was going to be playing there. So we worked on it, and it worked out in my favor. Wherever he wants me to play, I’ll go. I’ll play it.
“I had never stood at first base as a defensive player. But I took it head on. I didn’t make any excuses and just worked. I stayed after practice, showed up before practice, took ground balls until I literally couldn’t take any more.”
Dapshis’ diligence paid off.
“He’s an invaluable asset,” Pizer said. “Throwing him into first base for the first time ever to becoming a first-team all-conference player, that just proves what kind of player he is.”
Dapshis grew up primarily as an outfielder. But in part motivated by his stepbrother Carson Crowe, a 2021 Griffith graduate who played quarterback and is a quarterbacks coach at Highland, he turned into a catcher when he got to high school. Dapshis wound up starting at that position on the junior varsity team before earning a late-season call-up under then-coach John Bogner.
“They morphed me into a catcher my freshman year, and I’ve been doing it ever since,” Dapshis said. “I came in as an outfielder, and coach Bogner, it was fall practice, not a lot of guys show up, and he was just asking who caught, and I raised my hand. I watched my older brother catch for 15 years. I was like, ‘I think I can do it.’
“I dropped to block one time, he saw me and told me I was going to be the next guy in the program. It just took one pitch, he saw me and I was a catcher.”
Dapshis has come a long way since then.
“I’ve been catching really well,” he said. “After playing first base last year, that was one of my biggest goals this year, to be one of the best catchers around. I’ve been working toward that. We worked all offseason on that.
“We’re really forcing me to get to that level where I can compete with the best of the best in the Region.”
Dapshis said he’s “debating” whether to pursue baseball in college or perhaps join the Marines. He discussed entering the military with his late grandfather Kirk Dapshis, for whom he’s named.
“If I get something good, I’m going to play in college,” Dapshis said. “My grandpa was in the Air Force. He passed away last winter, and that was one of the things I always told him I was going to do before he passed. But I’ve always wanted to play ball in college. If I get that opportunity, I’m going to take it.”
There’s no debate about what Highland is pursuing this season. After two seasons in a Class 3A sectional that included Andrean and Hanover Central, the Trojans could be in position to contend for their first sectional title since 2000 as part of the realigned 3A field.
“We really want to get that sectional championship,” Dapshis said. “From the start of my high school career, that’s the No. 1 thing. We have to get that sectional — 25 years. This group of guys, we have the team to do it, and we have the sectional to do it. We’ve been working toward that tremendously.”
