Payton Oehlschlager has been all about Mt. Vernon as long as he can remember.
“I’ve been playing ever since I was allowed to play, old enough to play, here at Mt. Vernon,” he said.
As such, head coach Nick Swillium has known Payton’s name—however difficult it may be to spell—for years.
“He was one of the guys that we definitely were looking forward to getting,” Swillum said. “Always had a good arm and could always hit, so you knew from a young age that you had a guy that could be quite a talent on the baseball field.”
One place that talent manifests itself is the pitcher’s mound.
“Pitching is a big deal and it helps a team win, so I’m all for getting a win and whatever I can do to help that happen, I’m good with,” Payton said. “Everything starts and finishes with you. If you can’t perform, then the team probably isn’t going to perform.”
The other is centerfield, where Payton himself admits his true love may in fact lie.
“Personally, I like playing the outfield better,” he said. “I get to run around and dive and stuff and run balls down.”
Either way, he helps make the Mt’Neers go.
“He’s our leadoff hitter, and he is a spark plug for us,” Swillum said. “When he gets on, because of his speed, he’s a danger and a threat on the bases.”
With the length of time Payton has been playing, combined with the length of baseball schedule and the inherent culture of the sport, one would expect a few “good luck” charms to develop. But not for Payton.
“Baseball is a superstitious sport, Payton is not,” Swillum said. “He actually fights against superstition. If somebody says, ‘Hey, look, we won two games in a row in this color jersey, we need to wear it again, he’ll intentionally choose the opposite color jersey.”
No matter how much that goes against his coach’s instinct.
“I’m a superstitious guy,” Swillum said. “But if that works for him, whatever, it’s ok with me.”
Whatever it is, it’s working alright for Payton Oehlschlager, our Arby’s High School Athlete of the Week.
