Centennial high school recent graduate Andrew Munns played for the Apaches baseball team during his senior year. Munns played baseball at an early age but spent some time away from competing in the sport.
“I’ve been playing since I was eight or nine, then I stopped playing,” Munns said. “Then my coaches … got me to play out here again.”
Munn’s father got him into baseball in his youth. However, his father wished he prepared him for another sport after Munns endured a growth spurt that put him over six feet tall.
“My dad he said he didn’t know I was gonna be this tall, he would say he would have put me in basketball,” Munns said. “He put me in baseball, and I just started liking baseball a lot.”
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During his time playing baseball, a piece of advice that he found to be valuable was to keep his head in the game.
“When my teammates mess up, I show it, like I get mad, I start walking off. That’s what I need to work on too,” Munns said. “I don’t care when I get mad. So I just need to sit down … stay calm and just work on teamwork.”
Right before games, Munns would make himself angry to rev up his competitive spirit.
“I be thinking I’m gonna lose … I’m not gonna hit or nothing,” he said. “I think of something to get mad and then come out here and play hard.”
To balance being a student athlete, he focuses on his schoolwork during school hours and concentrates on baseball after school.
“I go to class and stuff, do my work and when it’s time to go, I keep it separate,” Munns said. “When it’s time to go play baseball, I gotta play. When it’s school, I stick to school … I do be tired though.”
Munns’ favorite class is ingenuity; he assists the teacher with tasks around the classroom.
“I already did all my work in ingenuity, so I am a helper,” he said. “When she asks me to go get papers from the office, I go get it.”
Last April, Munns competed with the Apaches in the Jackie Robinson Classic that was held at Gonzales park in Compton. The Classic was meant to commemorate the iconic Dodgers legend who broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball. Centennial lost to King/Drew 6-2 in the Classic.
“I’m excited to be out here, I’m happy to be with my friends,” Munns said. “Even if we lost, I’m still happy that we’re here.”
