Senior first baseman Michael Richardson has talents that exceed the baseball diamond. Along with being a stand-out in baseball, he is an umpire who enjoys traveling and horseback riding.
Richardson developed his baseball skills at the MLB Youth Academy in Compton; at the age of 12, he was able to compete with 16 and 17-year-olds. The mentorship he received from the coaches reaffirmed to him that baseball was his niche.
The MLB Youth Academy also awarded him the Academic Academy Excel Award from 2016-2020.
With his travel ball team, Richardson competed in several places including Boston, New York, Las Vegas, and Arizona.
“Just seeing other people and how they play and how they respond, it really gave me a sense that L.A. is not the center of the world,” Richardson said. “It gave me a way to adapt to situations that might happen out there.”
The ability to adapt helped him excel when competing for the Serra Cavaliers. Through his experience, he can look at situations from different perspectives.
“For travel ball teams, there’s certain plays that happen that you don’t know what he might do. He might throw a pick or he might over throw,” Richardson said. “Just being able to read that and make the adjustment helps me learn what my teammates do.”
Richardson has also been an umpire for five years. He recently umpired for the Generations High School All-Star Game at the Urban Youth Academy. His favorite part of umpiring are the close calls that could go either way.
“I’m always a stickler for bad calls,” he said. “I feel like I can see and make a call and make it, from my perspective, right.”
During his junior year, Richardson hit a batting slump and suffered a serious knee injury.
“Even though I was hurt, I went to every game just to see and cheer them on,” he said. “It was torture just not being able to play, seeing my team and being happy for them.”
He since then strengthened his knee and recovered from his slump. Richardson knows that being a student athlete means being able to manage all obligations in a productive manner.
“Being able to do well in the classroom and get good grades,” Richardson said. “And being able to transfer that onto the field or whatever sport you’re doing.”
Outside of academics and athletics, Richardson took a theater class and participated in a play during the fall semester. He chose theatre to broaden his talents and skills.
“[The play] is called ‘Third Class,’” he said. “It’s about different scenes of high school life.”
At the age of 10, Richardson grew a fondness for horseback riding through the Camp Jr Posse Youth Equestrian Program in Compton. The program taught him how to ride a horse and the basics of horse behavior. When he was in elementary school, Robertson got a chance to horseback ride during a field trip in Costa Rica.
“We were just walking through the rain forest, you see just a bunch of trees and birds flying in and the sounds of the rain forest,” he said. “It was very, very calming.”
