Falcon spotlight: Shortstop Paul Lytwynec
On October 16 the OCAA announced Fanshawe Falcon’s shortstop Paul Lytwynec would receive a League All-Star award for his efforts during the 2014 Men’s Baseball season.
Lytwynec lead the league in both hits (29) and doubles (7). Paul also finished second in the league with a .468 average, .560 on-base percentage while playing excellent defense that led the Falcons to the team’s first ever bronze medal in its inaugural season.
I caught up with Paul to learn a little bit about his background, how he came to Fanshawe and how he deals with life as a student and varsity baseball player.
Q: When did you start playing baseball?
A: I started playing baseball when I was pretty young, probably 5 or 6. My dad was a baseball player and got me playing (the game). I was born in Oakville, played my first year of baseball in Burlington, but for most of my life I have played London baseball. I started playing for North London Nationals, then went through the entire London Badger system with Mike Lumley, then four years at the University of Western with Lumley and now the one year here at Fanshawe. In the summers, I have played for the London Majors for about four or five years now and a few other organizations around the London area.
Q: What was your favourite position growing up?
A: Favourite position is definitely shortstop. I love playing shortstop, I’ve played a little bit of third base, but for the most part I have played shortstop all the way through [my baseball career].
Q: Do you have a particular athlete that you idolize?
A: Growing up it was always Curtis Joseph [the goalie for the Leafs] because I played hockey. But for the most part, I don’t have someone in particular I modelled after for baseball.
Q: Do you have a favourite sports team?
A: I’m a big Toronto sports fan: Jays, Leafs, and Raptors. My favourite football team is the Oakland Raiders but we can just forget about that. They are pretty bad. But yeah I have watched a lot of crappy sports teams over the years.
Q: Can you comment on how it feels to be recognized for your team and individual achievements this year?
A: Thank you. Yeah it’s pretty sweet! I mean when you put a bunch of guys together last minute as a first year team with a first year coaching staff, the whole year was constant trial and error and trying to figure out how to get the team up and running. So considering we medaled in our first year, I would say this was for sure a successful season. I was unable to play in the silver medal game … but I think we could have won silver if given another chance. St. Clair [gold medal winner] was definitely the best team, but it’s pretty impressive to put a team together last minute and medal in our first year. Not too bad. Our goal at the start of the year was playoffs and really quickly that changed to lets go get a medal; definitely a successful year.
Q: How do you manage playing varsity and being a full time student?
A: It’s tough. We’re lucky that the season is only a couple months long … All [the] professors are really accommodating. All the coaches are accommodating, so it actually worked out pretty good.
For the last couple weeks here leading up to Orillia, I had everything written down to the hour of when I was writing tests early but everyone was really helpful. When I come back next week I’ll have a couple of midterms I’ll have to make up as well.
Q: How would you say Fanshawe has helped shape you as an athlete?
A: Fanshawe is awesome! Every time people ask I can’t say enough about Fanshawe and their Athletic Department. It might have something to do with us being a first year team but they gave us absolutely everything we asked for: equipment, great coaching staff. It was like anything we wanted, they were 100 per cent all in. It was awesome!
Q: Do you have any words for aspiring athletes looking to play baseball at Fanshawe?
A: I’d say that’s the biggest thing for us. We built a program out of people who just showed up at tryouts and put up a bronze medal. Can you imagine if we actually started recruiting? The foundations are there. I’d say to anybody thinking about coming: One athletic department is amazing they are so supportive. Two the coaching staff is so supportive. Three the school is awesome. It’s an easy sell to students coming in to go to one of the better schools in Canada.
Lytwynec lead the league in both hits (29) and doubles (7). Paul also finished second in the league with a .468 average, .560 on-base percentage while playing excellent defense that led the Falcons to the team’s first ever bronze medal in its inaugural season.
I caught up with Paul to learn a little bit about his background, how he came to Fanshawe and how he deals with life as a student and varsity baseball player.
Q: When did you start playing baseball?
A: I started playing baseball when I was pretty young, probably 5 or 6. My dad was a baseball player and got me playing (the game). I was born in Oakville, played my first year of baseball in Burlington, but for most of my life I have played London baseball. I started playing for North London Nationals, then went through the entire London Badger system with Mike Lumley, then four years at the University of Western with Lumley and now the one year here at Fanshawe. In the summers, I have played for the London Majors for about four or five years now and a few other organizations around the London area.
Q: What was your favourite position growing up?
A: Favourite position is definitely shortstop. I love playing shortstop, I’ve played a little bit of third base, but for the most part I have played shortstop all the way through [my baseball career].
Q: Do you have a particular athlete that you idolize?
A: Growing up it was always Curtis Joseph [the goalie for the Leafs] because I played hockey. But for the most part, I don’t have someone in particular I modelled after for baseball.
Q: Do you have a favourite sports team?
A: I’m a big Toronto sports fan: Jays, Leafs, and Raptors. My favourite football team is the Oakland Raiders but we can just forget about that. They are pretty bad. But yeah I have watched a lot of crappy sports teams over the years.
Q: Can you comment on how it feels to be recognized for your team and individual achievements this year?
A: Thank you. Yeah it’s pretty sweet! I mean when you put a bunch of guys together last minute as a first year team with a first year coaching staff, the whole year was constant trial and error and trying to figure out how to get the team up and running. So considering we medaled in our first year, I would say this was for sure a successful season. I was unable to play in the silver medal game … but I think we could have won silver if given another chance. St. Clair [gold medal winner] was definitely the best team, but it’s pretty impressive to put a team together last minute and medal in our first year. Not too bad. Our goal at the start of the year was playoffs and really quickly that changed to lets go get a medal; definitely a successful year.
Q: How do you manage playing varsity and being a full time student?
A: It’s tough. We’re lucky that the season is only a couple months long … All [the] professors are really accommodating. All the coaches are accommodating, so it actually worked out pretty good.
For the last couple weeks here leading up to Orillia, I had everything written down to the hour of when I was writing tests early but everyone was really helpful. When I come back next week I’ll have a couple of midterms I’ll have to make up as well.
Q: How would you say Fanshawe has helped shape you as an athlete?
A: Fanshawe is awesome! Every time people ask I can’t say enough about Fanshawe and their Athletic Department. It might have something to do with us being a first year team but they gave us absolutely everything we asked for: equipment, great coaching staff. It was like anything we wanted, they were 100 per cent all in. It was awesome!
Q: Do you have any words for aspiring athletes looking to play baseball at Fanshawe?
A: I’d say that’s the biggest thing for us. We built a program out of people who just showed up at tryouts and put up a bronze medal. Can you imagine if we actually started recruiting? The foundations are there. I’d say to anybody thinking about coming: One athletic department is amazing they are so supportive. Two the coaching staff is so supportive. Three the school is awesome. It’s an easy sell to students coming in to go to one of the better schools in Canada.
