Whether its a fastball that bounces a foot in front of home plate, or a soccer ball blasted towards the corner of the net, there’s not much getting past Kyle Hejduk these days.
Hejduk, a senior at Saint John, plays for the Heralds baseball team and is the goalie for the Geneva soccer team.
This season, he surpassed the 300-save mark in soccer.
“It’s a very special accomplishment to me,” he said of the milestone. “I never thought I’d reach that. That’s like way more than I thought.”
It’s actually probably more like something he never thought about at all.
Hejduk’s first sport has always been baseball. He didn’t pick up soccer until he reached middle school.
His training for the goalie position happened at the end of his ninth grade season. A year later, he was the starter.
“My coaches thought that since I’m a catcher for baseball, I’d be good at it,” he said. “I tried it and it was pretty fun and I guess I was pretty good.”
Three years later, what the coaches suspected about his abilities has been more than confirmed.
Hejduk’s skill in the net and leaderships ability has kept the Eagles in many matches this season.
“The biggest thing is he’s an aggressive goal keeper,” first-year Geneva soccer coach Jamie Lee said. “He’s somebody that is not afraid to come out when someone is charging at him.
“Some goal keepers will hold up that extra half second and he doesn’t. He makes that decision right away, comes out and makes the save. That’s what separated him from the other goalies out there.”
Prior to Lee, the Eagles were coached by Anthony Cardaman, who had to step away from the position to concentrate more on teaching at Grand Valley Local Schools.
In his time working with Hejduk, though, Cardaman said it was clear Hejduk had all the instincts needed to play the position at a high level.
“His ability to react in get in front of things is a credit to baseball for certain,” Cardaman said. “His instincts to go when he needs to go, move when he needs to move and be in the right place. He’s a phenomenal athlete and a phenomenal young man.”
On the diamond, Hejduk’s main position is behind the plate, but he plays other positions as well.
The instincts he’s developed from baseball are something he agrees has helped him in the net.
“I feel like I brought those instincts over,” Hejduk said. “I just had to learn how to incorporate them and be confident in what I’m doing.”
Saint John baseball coach Alvin Rodriguez believes the traits Hejduk developed behind the plate just naturally lend themselves to other sports.
“I think all catchers are natural leaders and they tend to be kind of selfless guys, Kyle is that,” Rodriguez said. “He’s a team guy, he’s willing to sacrifice and to be in the goal and to be a catcher, you have to willing to sacrifice your body for your team.
“So, I think that skill set lends itself to different sports and it lends itself to life. I definitely see Kyle being successful at anything he does because of the kind of kid he is, the kind of grit he has and the selflessness in him.”
Geneva is 6-8-2 overall, 3-1 in the Chagrin Valley Conference Lake Division, good for second place, in soccer this fall. They will wrap up the regular season tonight at Chagrin Falls.
Hejduk said baseball will always be his first love, but if an opportunity arrives for him with soccer, just as he does in the net, he won’t hesitate to go after it.
“If I get a scholarship for either sport, that would be exciting,” he said.
