State Press sports editors Alex Coil and Koki Riley sit down with reporters Lauren Hertz and Olivia Eisenhauer to discuss their story on new ASU baseball verbal commit, Ivan Brethowr.
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ALEX COIL:
Hello everybody and welcome to episode three of SP Sports Weekly, your weekly roundup of State Press sports content. Alongside KokiI Riley, I am Alex Coil and we are the sports editors at The State Press. This week, we have Lauren Hertz and Olivia Eisenhauer on the podcast to talk about their latest installment of our ASU recruiting series.
KOKI RILEY:
And they're going to be here to talk about their story on ASU’s verbal commit, Ivan Brethowr. He is a baseball player hoping to fill Spencer Torkelson’s shoes. Thank you for joining us, Lauren and Olivia.
LAUREN HERTZ:
No problem. Thank you.
KOKI:
Alrighty. So just to start things off, what about Ivan’s story really caught both of your eyes?
LAUREN:
For me, at least when I was going through ASU’s baseball recruits, Ivan kind of stood out, not only because he was from Olivia's hometown but also because he was six-foot-six and played for a perfect game. And the fact that he was an outfielder to me at six-foot six-inches was pretty interesting.
OLIVIA:
It’s cool for me that he’s from my hometown, but you also don't hear about a lot of baseball recruits coming out of Kansas City because it's cold half the year, so you can't really play. But yeah, his size also and just the amount of success he's had, and he hasn't even gotten to ASU yet.
ALEX:
Now, what about the idea that in the headline it was ASU verbal commit hopes to fill Torkelson’s shoes. Why should those expectations be thrown on him already and, in reporting and in talking to him about that, what did he feel?
OLIVIA:
I think aside from what he can do on the field, I think that he is very, almost steady minded. He talked about this a little bit, but just his ability to analyze the game is superior to a lot of people and a lot of recruits that I've spoken to. I think that his IQ in baseball will allow him to do very well at ASU and fill those very large shoes.
KOKI:
When talking with Brethowr, what kind of player and what kind of personality is he? How was he with his teammates? What kind of player should ASU expect the season off the field?
LAUREN:
In my opinion, ASU should expect someone who's very driven. Out of speaking to a lot of recruits and different athletes, Ivan out of all of them seems very driven towards a personal goal. And when you're very driven, it allows you to achieve those goals, which I think that Ivan will hopefully be able to do in his time at ASU.
ALEX:
Now it's also mentioned in the piece that, he kind of wants to model his game after Aaron Judge. Obviously, Judge is one of the best power hitters in the game of baseball and plays for the Yankees as an outfielder, a very tall outfielder as well. Other than just a similar body type, how else does he wants to model his game after Judge?
OLIVIA:
Well, he talks about this, during kind of COVID and all that stuff, he's been really working on modeling his swing after Judge and just adding in those like timing mechanisms that he uses on his own, but really becoming a back-foot hitter is what he talks about. And becoming, what I believe what he said was becoming not just a power hitter, but a hitter with power is what he admired Judge for most.
KOKI:
What inspired Brethowr to come to ASU? What was it about this program that caught his eye?
OLIVIA:
He went to a tournament when he was a lot younger as well, and they watched ASU’s baseball team. Ever since then he kind of had his eyes on ASU, but at the tournament, Lauren is referencing, he really decided this is where I want to be, and he described it as MLBU. And he’s been very driven towards that goal ever since he was very young, is what he explained, to get to the MLB. And so, he just kind of said, this is where I want to be and had his eyes on it since then.
ALEX:
Now is this a player that could see himself enrolling early to ASU, kind of skipping out of his freshman season, his senior season, excuse me, of high school baseball. Going to play his freshman season here at ASU this spring, or is he going to want to maybe wait for that 2021 draft to see where it ends up before making the decision to enroll?
OLIVIA:
As well, as he said, he's coming in with quite a few college credits already. He seems very academically driven compared to some of the other recruits we've spoken to and his coach, his high school coach said that as well, that he's very driven on the field, but also in the classroom. So, I think he's really preparing himself for – this is a sense I got, he didn't say this specifically –but he's really preparing himself for if he were to be able to graduate early or get drafted early.
KOKI:
We want to thank Lauren and Olivia for joining the podcast this week. Thank you for sharing your insight on your interesting story about ASU baseball recruit Ivan Brethowr. Thank you both so much.
OLIVIA:
Thank you so much.
LAUREN:
Thank you.
ALEX:
Thank you all for listening to SP Sports Weekly. Make sure to listen in next week for the next episode of the podcast. If you missed out on any previous episodes, make sure to find those on Spotify. For all of our sports content, go over to statepress.com. You can also follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook, Twitter @statepresssport and @statepress. Koki and I look forward to seeing everyone next week. Thank you all for listening.
Reach the reporters at ancoil@asu.edu and kbriley@asu.edu and follow @anc2018 and @KokiRiley on Twitter.
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