By Hayden Swope

Ellsworth’s Lane Rolfs was a first team all-league baseball player last season, and he’s hoping to add on to his accolades this year. Rolfs spent the offseason staying with a bat and a ball to keep up his training and conditioning.

“Preparing for the upcoming season I play summer and fall ball throughout the year and once the new year comes around I like to start swinging a bat and keeping my arm in shape as much as I can so I don’t get behind once it gets closer to the season,” Rolfs said.

While pushing himself to the limits to better himself as an player, Rolfs also has big hopes and dreams for his team to finish strong in the end.

“The number one team goal I have would be to make it to the state tournament,” Rolfs said. “I think we’re gonna have a good group of guys this year that have the talent to make it into a regional championship game to give us that shot at state. Throughout the year for us is just to see improvement and more dedication from everyone each day.”

Even with his final high school season right around the corner, Rolfs started building his stats four years ago, where he broke a school record as a freshman.

“My favorite memory from baseball came during my freshman year when we played at Ellinwood,” Rolfs said. “I started on the mound in our second game of the double header and went six and two-third innings ending with 14 strikeouts which broke the Ellsworth single game strikeout record.”

Rolfs has aspirations to continue playing the sport he loves at the next level while also furthering his education.

“My future plans are to hopefully attend a D1 junior college in Kansas to play baseball and study construction science,” Rolfs said.