T-R PHOTO BY THORN COMPTON - Many leaders of other Marshalltown sports have combined to lead the Bobcats back to state for the first time since 2009. Pictured are, from left, state champion golfer Nate Vance, all-state basketbal player Luke Appel, state-qualifying wrestler Brian Trowbridge and MHS quarterback Sam Irwin.

A state champion golfer, an all-state basketball player, a state-qualifying wrestler and a quarterback.

Those are just some of the accolades that Nate Vance, Luke Appel, Brian Trowbridge and Sam Irwin boast for the Marshalltown baseball team as multi-sport athletes.

Bobcats head coach Steve Hanson said in a time where many young athletes are specializing in one sport or another, it’s nice to have so many multi-sport players swinging the bats for his squad.

“It adds to that competition piece because the only way you can become a great competitor is to go out and have them risk something, and they all have,” Hanson said. “They’ve all been out there, I’ve noticed in the last couple of weeks that a lot of them don’t like to lose, they don’t like to be embarrassed, and that’s a great trait to have. You get back a lot quicker with that guy than the guy who says ‘oh that wasn’t such a big deal.'”

Vance — the reigning Class 4A individual state golf champion and NCAA Division-I golf commit to Loyola-Chicago — said the team has such an aversion towards losing because of the individual players’ involvement in other sports.

“You learn how to deal with adversity, learn how to play under pressure, even if it’s not your No. 1 sport you are still competitive and you don’t want to lose,” he said. “You have a bunch of competitive guys on one team, you tend to win some ballgames. We got in a little slump there but when it came down to it in the really important ballgames we had competitive guys and were able to get the job done.”

Appel — part of the state champion MHS golf team and an all-state basketball player — joined the baseball team for the first time in his high school career this season, and he said playing with guys who excel at other sports is part of what brought him onto the diamond.

“A lot of these guys are a few of my best friends and I played AAU with them when I was younger and it was fun,” he said. “With basketball I always had games and stuff so it never really worked out until this year but it’s been a lot of fun to just keep bonding through baseball.”

Trowbridge — a state-qualifying wrestler for the Bobcats this year — said getting to the state tournament with a team rather than as an individual is a special feeling.

“It’s pretty nice, you get to share the whole experience with all your teammates this time,” he said. “In wrestling it was less than a handful of people, it’s just really fun because we’ve been through the whole year together and we get to stay together.”

Irwin — the starting quarterback for Marshalltown and a state-qualifying runner in track — said the team benefits from having different styles of athletes all come together to accomplish something great.

“We have a lot of personalities on the team and I guess we really hit off with one another really well,” he said. “One guy might be better at this and one guy is better at that, you kind of feed off each other and feed off each other’s energy at practice and games. One guy might not be playing well but there will be another guy who will be picking up his load and keeping the wagon moving.”

When there are multiple high-level athletes on a team that are used to being the leader, clashes over who truly leads the team can arise. Vance said that hasn’t been an issue this year, but the guys still do butt heads at times.

“We had times where someone didn’t want to listen to another person but there’s nothing wrong with that,” he said. “Mouthing off at each other and getting on your teammates about messing up is never a bad thing. That’s just being really competitive and trying to whoop up on each other in practice, but playing a ballgame we have one common goal. That was to go play at Principal Park, and now that we’ve made it, it’s a little bit of icing on the cake and we will enjoy it while we are there. Hopefully win a couple more ballgames.”

It’s not easy to keep in shape for one sport throughout an entire season, let alone keep that going through an entire year of competing, but Irwin said if you can keep it going all year it will benefit you in the long run.

“You’ve got to be tough if you want to play four sports, that’s for sure, and especially in this town I think everyone should play four sports because your best athletes are your best athletes,” he said. “It keeps you competitive and I think we have a lot of really competitive guys. You might not be the best team but if you’re competitive and refuse to lose you can beat anyone.”

With baseball being played in the summer as the lone sport it allows all of these athletes to play together, and Trowbridge said playing in the Iowa High School State Baseball Tournament both puts a nice bow on the year and provides some much-needed distraction for the people in town dealing with the aftermath of last week’s EF-3 tornado.

“It’s been a great year and this is a good way to finish off the athletic year,” he said. “It’s kind of good with the tornado too because it’s a positive thing, a lot of people are in trouble in Marshalltown but we can kind of give them some relief.”

Vance said not only is the team trying to set a good example off the field by aiding in recovery efforts from the devastating storm, he also hopes it sets a good example on the field by featuring so many multi-sport athletes.

“You just get so many advantages from playing other sports and I hope younger kids see that,” he said. “I was fortunate enough to be recruited for both [golf and baseball], but I think kids are steering away from that because they want to go Division-I in that one sport, but I think you can do that even if you play five sports. Those other sports all benefit you, you’re getting strength, you’re getting competitiveness, you’re getting agility, I think they all help.”

Coach Hanson agreed with Vance, saying the experiences athletes get playing many sports will help them in future endeavors.

“I think Luke Appel will be a better basketball player wherever he goes because he experienced this,” Hanson said. “Vance sometime is going to have a 12-foot putt on Lake Shore Drive somewhere and he is going to remember all the stuff he did here that put him in a position to succeed.”

Marshalltown starts the Iowa High School State Baseball Tournament on Wednesday at Principal Park in Des Moines when it faces Urbandale, starting at 7:30 p.m.